We've taken a comprehensive look at the features of some of the most popular OTT apps worldwide, which will be followed by an article which takes a good look at who's winning where, using data shared exclusively with Mobile Marketing by the analytics firm Onavo.
Facebook Messenger
Platforms: iPhone, Android and BlackBerry
Started: August 2011 after buying group messaging startup Beluga
Facebook created the Messenger app so chats with friends were just one click away, rather than having to load up full-fat Facebook. But in practice, having the two running in tandem is proving unsuccessful. Especially as your Facebook messages were already just two clicks away.
Today, just 19 per cent of Facebook’s iPhone users worldwide also have the Messenger app. Facebook shut down and integrated Beluga’s group messaging, location sharing and mapping functions into both apps, but group chats in particular are better signposted in standard Facebook. You can message friends of friends in both apps, but can’t yet, despite claims in its blurb about Messenger, message handset contacts via Facebook or send SMS messages using the Android and iOS handsets we tested.
Users of either app can Bing search for pictures to send to friends, as well as adding photos from their phone, can take a picture and record audio. You can make ‘free calls’ – warning that data charges may apply – and provided your friend has linked Facebook with their handset. Which is by no means everyone. If this spin-off was intended to create a new revenue stream, namely around in-app stickers, which works well for other messaging services, then the plan has gone awry. Although paid-for stickers are yet to go live, a shopping basket on Facebook proper indicates where purchases will be made, which already contains some freebies to get people hooked. But this is feature that hasn’t yet made it to Messenger.
KakaoTalk Messenger
Platforms: Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows OS, Bada
Started: Launched by South Korean IT company Kakao in March 2010
Although the company initially focused on South Asian markets, the app in now available ‘anywhere in the world’, with translations into English, Spanish, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, Turkish, Italian, French, German and Portuguese. It reached 100m users worldwide in July.
Users can make free calls, including to groups and with ‘fun voice filters’, send messages to anyone else with the app, including celebrities, with users able to group chat to an ‘unlimited’ number of people. You can also add appointments and schedule reminders, share videos, photos and voice notes.
The company has created a wide range of monetisation opportunities, including a sticker and themes store, where in-app purchases go up to $3, its own free games, which are linked to and downloadable from the relevant app store, with a host of in-app purchase options here too. KakaoTalk is certainly big in South Korea, with 95 per cent reach for iPhone users. It has nine per cent reach in Japan, three per cent in Hong Kong and two per cent in China. Outside of Asia, however, the app appears to have had little impact.
LINE
Platforms: Android, iOS, Windows, BlackBerry, Nokia Asha, Windows, Windows 8 or Mac
Started: Created by South Korean internet content provider NHN Corporation in July 2011 to help Japanese people communicate after the earthquake there
LINE claimed 200m users in July this year, and along with 71 per cent penetration among iPhone message app users in Japan, is used by 46 per cent of those people in Hong Kong, along with 44 per cent in Spain. It also has a significant presence in Latin America. LINE supports free calls on iPhone and Android to app users. Other handset users can get LINE on their Windows, Windows 8 or Mac computers to access this feature. Users can have group chats with up to 100 participants.
To get started in the LINE shop, you have to purchase the virtual currency, which starts at £1.49 for 100 and goes up to £32.99 for 3,400, plus 1,000 bonus coins for spending your cash on nothing. Coins can only be spent on the operating system they were bought on. It also uses banner ads in its apps to advertise new stickers that people can buy.
Similarly to Kakao, LINE offers simple, free ‘match three’-style games to download in-app with paid-for bolt-ons and the opportunity to play with other users to earn rewards. It also has a number of other proprietary apps, including LINE Camera, LINE Card and LINE Brush. LINE is going beyond messaging to creating an in-app social network of its own with its Timeline feature.
Skype
Platforms: Windows 8, Windows and Windows tablets, Mac, Linux, Windows Phone, Android phones and tablets, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Kindle Fire, Skype-ready phones and TVs, Playstation Vita
Started: 2003, bought by eBay in 2005 $2.5bn, before Microsoft finally bought the platform in 2011 for $8.5bn
Skype offers free instant messaging, terrible emoticons and Skype-to-Skype video or voice calls in its ad-supported, free version, along with international calls at cheap rates. The premium, ad-free version, charged at £2.99 per month, offers group chat and unlimited calls to a region of your choice.
Skype had a 34 per cent share of international calls made last year, up from 13 per cent in 2010, but is no doubt facing stiff competition.
Snapchat
Platforms: iOS and Android
Started when: September 2011 at Stanford University by a group of students
Snapchat is a photo and image sharing app, a residing place of the #selfie, where users also have the ability to add text and imagery to their masterpiece before sending to other app users, as well as groups of users. The key USP of Snapchat, and potentially the reason it’s been adopted by so many young people, is that the images have a time-limit and then disappear from both the sender’s and receiver’s phone.
Controversy has swirled about whether the images really disappear from existence after this, and the team explained last month: “If you’ve ever tried to recover lost data after accidentally deleting a drive, or maybe watched an episode of CSI, you might know that with the right forensic tools, it’s sometimes possible to retrieve data after it has been deleted.” Essentially confirming that any compromising images are not gone-gone. People have also been known to take a quick screen grab before the message self-destructs.
Although the team was nearly laughed out of the classroom when they pitched it to classmates, it received $13.5m in funding back in February and a further $60m in July. The app doesn't have a price tag for users or any ads yet, but does have an $800m valuation 'pre-money'. The founders are working on using the platform for product teasers and flash sales. It had 8m US users back in May but is also doing very well in the UK and Canada.
Viber
Platforms: Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Series 40, Symbian, Bada, Windows Phone, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and a Linux version is in development
Started: 2010 in Israel
Viber has spent the last three years waging war directly with Skype and has made significant effort to make itself available across an equitable number of platforms. Although the company has not yet reached the same heights, its CEO revealed in May that it has passed 200m users. Viber enables voice calls, group messaging, doodles and recently localised its service into 16 languages and added desktop platforms.
Neat USPs of Viber include the ability to share your big-fingered masterpieces on Facebook, as well as a handy quick reply function via a lockscreen takeover. Viber also enables users to transfer calls from its desktop to mobile apps if you are on your way out the door. The company doesn’t currently generate revenues but will, like KakaoTalk and LINE, start to sell messaging stickers this year. The company has received $20m investment.
Whatsapp
Platforms: Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Series 40, Symbian and Windows Phone
Started: 2009 by Yahoo veterans Brian Acton and Jan Koum in California
Although more limited in functionality than some of its messaging competitors, currently offering instant and voice messaging, some loveable emoticons, audio, image and video sending, this is by far and away the most popular messaging app among iPhone users in the UK. The company’s CEO has always come out hard against ad-funded services and offers his app free or a year before charging $0.99. It reported more than 300m active users in August, with 325m photos shared each day.
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/going-ott#GHzDhx755VYG4szu.99
Friday, 16 August 2013
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Smartphone Sales Exceed Feature Phones for First Time
Smartphone sales have exceeded feature phone sales for the first time, according to Gartner’s Market Share Analysis. While sales of smartphones worldwide have increased by 46.5 per cent year-on-year to 225m, feature phone sales declined 21 per cent to 210m handsets.
Android is still the largest operating system, with 178m devices worldwide using Google's OS. This gives it a 79 per cent share, which has increased from 64.2 per cent from the same time a year earlier. Apple remains in second and sold 31.9m iOS devices in Q2, giving it a 14.7 per cent market share.
Windows now claims the third spot, overtaking BlackBerry, with 7.4m devices sold running its operating system, or 3.3 per cent. BlackBerry sold 6.1m devices in Q2, a decline of 22 per cent from 2012.
Samsung maintained the largest share of smartphone handset sales, at 71.4m or 31.7 per cent. After Apple handsets, LG comes in third, selling 11.5m devices, giving it a 5.1 per cent share. Although Windows is the third OS, the flagship Nokia Lumia range has not made it onto the top handsets list.
Samsung’s sales grew by 56 per cent during this period, while Apple’s grew 10 per cent.
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/smartphone-sales-exceed-feature-phones-first-time#W7ciOc6Sxpy0Mce3.99
Android is still the largest operating system, with 178m devices worldwide using Google's OS. This gives it a 79 per cent share, which has increased from 64.2 per cent from the same time a year earlier. Apple remains in second and sold 31.9m iOS devices in Q2, giving it a 14.7 per cent market share.
Windows now claims the third spot, overtaking BlackBerry, with 7.4m devices sold running its operating system, or 3.3 per cent. BlackBerry sold 6.1m devices in Q2, a decline of 22 per cent from 2012.
Samsung maintained the largest share of smartphone handset sales, at 71.4m or 31.7 per cent. After Apple handsets, LG comes in third, selling 11.5m devices, giving it a 5.1 per cent share. Although Windows is the third OS, the flagship Nokia Lumia range has not made it onto the top handsets list.
Samsung’s sales grew by 56 per cent during this period, while Apple’s grew 10 per cent.
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/smartphone-sales-exceed-feature-phones-first-time#W7ciOc6Sxpy0Mce3.99
O2 Reveals 4G Tariffs and Perks
O2 has unveiled a range of tariffs and a few perks that it will offer come the big 29 August 4G switch on, although the operator appears to have struggled to match Vodafone’s fanfare.
O2’s 12-month 4G SIM-only packages start at £26 for 1GB of data - that’s one less than Vodafone’s opening deal - and go up to £36 a month with 5GB of data. Vodafone’s top SIM-only plan offers 8GB for £36. Additional bolt-ons will cost £6 for 500MB and £10 for 1GB from O2.
Standard 4G plans include the opportunity to switch your phone at a whim, called O2 Refresh, and for a 24-month contract, prices start at £22 a month for 1GB of data and go up to £37 for 8GB. There are 'additional charges' for the different devices on offer of between £10 and £25 per month - so people will end up paying upwards of £32 per month for the cheapest 4G plan. O2 says it will have 10 handsets to choose from, Vodafone has just three, with neither currently offering 4G on iPhone.
If people sign up quickly for an O2 Refresh contract of 3GB or more, they will get additional free data for the duration of it. Existing O2 customers that don’t have a 4G handset but want to upgrade will get 25 per cent of the contract buyout cost paid by O2. O2 customers can also trade in their old device for up to £300. Vodafone says it will knock 75 per cent off the remaining contract charges if people have an iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 or a Galaxy Note 2 and want to upgrade.
O2 hasn’t managed to secure the launch partnerships that Vodafone has – which include Sky and Spotify. It does however offer 12 month's free access to O2 4G Tracks, with music and video from the top 40, as well as Priority Sports content. The company has also secured a deal with Gameloft for O2 customers to play some popular mobile games without using up their data.
O2 customers also get free access to 9,000 O2 wi-fi hotspots and can sign up for Priority Moments. O2 will launch 4G for pay-as-you-go customers before the end of the year.
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/o2-reveals-4g-tariffs-and-perks#ArWvYk5BZeCJoVUS.99
O2’s 12-month 4G SIM-only packages start at £26 for 1GB of data - that’s one less than Vodafone’s opening deal - and go up to £36 a month with 5GB of data. Vodafone’s top SIM-only plan offers 8GB for £36. Additional bolt-ons will cost £6 for 500MB and £10 for 1GB from O2.
Standard 4G plans include the opportunity to switch your phone at a whim, called O2 Refresh, and for a 24-month contract, prices start at £22 a month for 1GB of data and go up to £37 for 8GB. There are 'additional charges' for the different devices on offer of between £10 and £25 per month - so people will end up paying upwards of £32 per month for the cheapest 4G plan. O2 says it will have 10 handsets to choose from, Vodafone has just three, with neither currently offering 4G on iPhone.
If people sign up quickly for an O2 Refresh contract of 3GB or more, they will get additional free data for the duration of it. Existing O2 customers that don’t have a 4G handset but want to upgrade will get 25 per cent of the contract buyout cost paid by O2. O2 customers can also trade in their old device for up to £300. Vodafone says it will knock 75 per cent off the remaining contract charges if people have an iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 or a Galaxy Note 2 and want to upgrade.
O2 hasn’t managed to secure the launch partnerships that Vodafone has – which include Sky and Spotify. It does however offer 12 month's free access to O2 4G Tracks, with music and video from the top 40, as well as Priority Sports content. The company has also secured a deal with Gameloft for O2 customers to play some popular mobile games without using up their data.
O2 customers also get free access to 9,000 O2 wi-fi hotspots and can sign up for Priority Moments. O2 will launch 4G for pay-as-you-go customers before the end of the year.
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/o2-reveals-4g-tariffs-and-perks#ArWvYk5BZeCJoVUS.99
83 Per Cent of Facebook's Daily UK Users are Mobile
In a bid to bring on more advertisers to add to the 1m plus on board already, Facebook has for the first time revealed daily and monthly users in the UK and US, as well as how many active mobile users there are in each country. Further country-specific data, promised at regular intervals, is also on the way, according to a spokesperson. We've pulled together all of the latest stats from Facebook to give you an idea of how mobile usage is growing worldwide, in each country and as a share of advertising.
Global user stats Q2, 2013
Global user stats Q2, 2013
- Monthly users: 1.15bn = +3.6 per cent q/q and +21 per cent y/y
- Daily users: 669m = +5.1 per cent q/q and +26 per cent y/y
- Monthly mobile users: 819m = +9 per cent q/q and +51 per cent y/y
- Daily mobile users: 469m = +10 per cent q/q
- Mobile-only: 219m = 20 per cent of total monthly users, more than Twitter has in total
- No. of mobile page impressions: 65bn per day
- Ad revenue: $1.16bn = 88 per cent of $1.81bn total revenue
- Mobile ad revenue: $656m = 36 per cent of total revenue, +10 percentage points q/q
- No. of advertisers: +1m worldwide
- Monthly users: 179m
- Daily users: 128m
- Monthly mobile users: 142m = 79 per cent of monthly users
- Daily mobile users: 101m = 78 per cent of daily US users and 20 per cent of total global daily mobile users
- Monthly users: 33m
- Daily users: 24m
- Monthly mobile users: 26m = 78 per cent of monthly UK users
- Daily mobile users: 20m = 83 per cent of daily UK users
- Facebook for Every Phone users: 100m
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Evernote Goes Free for 250m Telefónica Customers
Telefónica has signed a global deal with Evernote to give its iOS and Android subscribers free access to the productivity platform for a year, which usually costs $49, starting with customers in Brazil.
In a deal brokered by the operator’s innovation arm, Telefónica Digital, the operator hopes to offer the app to 250m subscribers in more than 20 countries in the coming months. This is likely to include all of the markets where Telefónica operates, except for Germany, where Deutsche Telecom already sealed a deal with the productivity company.
This is “one the first of many things Telefónica is doing to differentiate its service,” said Wayne Thorson, VP of global partnerships at Telefónica Digital, speaking to Mobile Marketing from California. A deal that “wouldn’t have happened” without the existence of such a body within Telefónica operating at the heart of the Valley. These kinds of partnerships are being created, he said, to take the operator “beyond connectivity and help innovate in different ways to move beyond the challenges of being an operator.”
The smartphone penetration in Brazil was 36 per cent in January of this year, according to Nielsen, with the Evernote deal likely to be a sweetener for those yet to come on board. Likewise, a legion of hooked mobile productivity fans in this fast-growth market should be very attractive to Evernote.
Telefónica has 76.2m mobile subscribers in Brazil, and although Thorson could not reveal exact figures for smartphone penetration, said the country had been chosen because adoption is “climbing a curve at a rate that no one has ever seen before. Decreasing prices of entry for smartphones, giving many people their only access to the internet, plus the rapidly growing middle class and economy, make it a perfect storm for smartphone penetration.”
He said that the customer relationship with Vivo, Telefónica's Brazil operation, is a lot deeper than those seen in EU, as fewer than 40 per cent of people have official financial relationships. “You mobile phone is your connection to the digital world here, which means mobile marketing via operators is used by a wide margin to get things done."
For Evernote, he said: “This deal allows people to try the very best version, the premium version, which will become very sticky, and introduces it to people who might not have trialled it on their own.” Thorson called the company a “unicorn” of the digital world, “there’s no on like them” he added.
“If you believe the future is the digital meeting the physical, this deal puts us into a place to not just benefit now, but lays the railroad tracks for the ecosystem of the future. We’re really playing chess by working with these guys.”
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/evernote-goes-free-250m-telef%C3%B3nica-customers#myQ8wgzTfDezzrM6.99
In a deal brokered by the operator’s innovation arm, Telefónica Digital, the operator hopes to offer the app to 250m subscribers in more than 20 countries in the coming months. This is likely to include all of the markets where Telefónica operates, except for Germany, where Deutsche Telecom already sealed a deal with the productivity company.
This is “one the first of many things Telefónica is doing to differentiate its service,” said Wayne Thorson, VP of global partnerships at Telefónica Digital, speaking to Mobile Marketing from California. A deal that “wouldn’t have happened” without the existence of such a body within Telefónica operating at the heart of the Valley. These kinds of partnerships are being created, he said, to take the operator “beyond connectivity and help innovate in different ways to move beyond the challenges of being an operator.”
The smartphone penetration in Brazil was 36 per cent in January of this year, according to Nielsen, with the Evernote deal likely to be a sweetener for those yet to come on board. Likewise, a legion of hooked mobile productivity fans in this fast-growth market should be very attractive to Evernote.
Telefónica has 76.2m mobile subscribers in Brazil, and although Thorson could not reveal exact figures for smartphone penetration, said the country had been chosen because adoption is “climbing a curve at a rate that no one has ever seen before. Decreasing prices of entry for smartphones, giving many people their only access to the internet, plus the rapidly growing middle class and economy, make it a perfect storm for smartphone penetration.”
He said that the customer relationship with Vivo, Telefónica's Brazil operation, is a lot deeper than those seen in EU, as fewer than 40 per cent of people have official financial relationships. “You mobile phone is your connection to the digital world here, which means mobile marketing via operators is used by a wide margin to get things done."
For Evernote, he said: “This deal allows people to try the very best version, the premium version, which will become very sticky, and introduces it to people who might not have trialled it on their own.” Thorson called the company a “unicorn” of the digital world, “there’s no on like them” he added.
“If you believe the future is the digital meeting the physical, this deal puts us into a place to not just benefit now, but lays the railroad tracks for the ecosystem of the future. We’re really playing chess by working with these guys.”
Written for Mobile Marketing Magazine and published here: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/evernote-goes-free-250m-telef%C3%B3nica-customers#myQ8wgzTfDezzrM6.99
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