M-Commerce Value Chain

Nour El Kadri

University Of Ottawa

Business Partnerships

• Content providers• Wireless Application

Service Providers• Mobile Network

Operators• Infrastructure

Equipment vendors• Software vendors

• Mobile Portals• Content Aggregators• Third-party billing

providers• Mobile Device

Manufacturers• Location Information

Brokers

Infrastructure Equipment Vendors

• Equipment vendors provide:– Base Stations– Mobile Switching Systems– Wireless Transmission Solutions for both Data

and Voice

$50 Billion Market in 2000$100 Billion in 2005They are major stakeholders in the m-

Commerce market.

Software Equipment Vendors

They play a critical role in:– Third Generation Partnership Forums (3GPP)– Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)– Mobile electronic Transaction (MeT)– Location Interoperability Forum (LIF)

Software Vendors

Suppliers of:• Operating Systems• Databases• Microbrowsers• Other middleware technologies

Major Operating Systems:• EPOC, by the Symbian Consortium (Psion,

Mstsushita, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola)• Windows CE, by Microsoft• PalmOS, runs on 60% of all PDAs (2004)

Microbrowsers & Databases

Microbrowsers:– Openwave (Phone.com)– Microsoft, Nokia, Ericsson– 4thPass has a Java-enabled microbrowser

Databases– iAnywhere Solutions, subsidiary of Sybase– Oracle– IBM

Most of these key players rely on the business model that combine licensing, consulting and maintenance fees.

Content Providers

Content can be:• News• Directory services• Directions• Shopping and

ticketing services• Entertainment

Services• Financial Services

Sources of Revenue:• Subscription fees• Transaction fees• Share of traffic

charges• Sponsorships,

advertising, referral fees, commissions.

Business Models

• User Fee Business Models (subscription and usage fees)

• Shopping Business Models

• Marketing Business Models

• Improved Efficiency Business Models

• Advertising Business Models

• Revenue-Sharing Business Models

User Fee Business Models

• Subscription Feesi-Mode model – rely on DoCoMo to collect fees

• Ex: Bandai and its Chara-Pa service, 1.6 million subscribers by 2000.

• Usage FeesCharge for actual usage of a service– More difficult for small providers to implement

on their own due to small charge fees rely on mobile operators, mobile portals and third party micro-billing operators

Shopping Business Models

• Like wired e-tailers…wireless is a new distribution channel

• Nokia, Nordia and Visa…cooperating to make full transactions

Marketing Business Models

• Mobile presence is subsidized company’s core business– Buying and selling cars, heavy equipment…– Promoting programs of a university

• Tsutaya for video and CD rentals– In 2000, 650,000 users– 2 million accesses per week

• Privacy laws and anti-spamming legislation protect customers…if implemented!

Improved Efficiency Models

• Cutting cost and improving customer satisfaction• Mobile banking• Mobile trading • Mobile ticketing

• Disintermediation…removing extra channelsDaiwa Securities in Japan

• 35% of stock trading on the internet• 20% using the i-mode mobile system• Mobile transactions were 50% cheaper than traditional ones

• Boosting company productivity through mobile access

Advertising Business Models

• Flat Fees– Charge flat fee for displaying advertisement

over a period of time

• Traffic-based Fees– Paying based on the number of times an

advertisement is placed

• Performance-based Fees– Fees based on the number of click-throughs

or call-throughs

Revenue Sharing Business Models

• Partnership arrangements with other companies

• Collecting payment from user and distributing it

Webraska:

• Driving maps with real time reporting

• Revenue sharing with Trafficmaster and Orange, M1, and voice stream.

Content Aggregators

Value Creation by assembling content from various sources– BuzzCity in Singapore aggregates, repurposes and

WAP-enable local, national and international content

Redistributed by mobile operators: • Telenor in Norway• Digi in Malaysia• TotalAccess in Thailand

Mobile portals, network operators and many ASPs operate as content aggregators

Mobile Network Operators

• MNOs Mobile Voice Carrier– Mobile Content Provider– Mobile portal– Mobile ISP– Mobile Location Broker– Mobile Transaction Provider

MNOs Challenges

Biggest threat comes from other competing players:

• Virtual Mobile Network Operators (VMNOs)– Do not own spectrum, but buy bandwidth from MNOs

for resale

• Mobile portals– MNOs have portals but feel the heat of traditional

Portals with mobile presence

• Third-party Billing Providers– Banks, Credit Card Companies, billing providers

Mobile Portals

• Offer a one-stop shop solution to mobile users• Market close to $10 billion per year (2005)• In 2001 more than 200 portals launched in

Europe alone.• Revenues come from different streams• To compete a portal needs to offer:

– Ease of use, personalization, a critical mass of services and applications - all at a reasonable price

Mobile portalsPlayers fall into different categories:

– Mobile Operators• NTT DoCoMo

• Traditional Internet Portals– AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, Lycos, Excite– Strategy to offer single integrated portal solution

• Mass Media Companies– Vivandi Universal Vizzavi portal in cooperation with Vodafone

• Device Manufacturers– Palm and Nokia through MyPalm and Club Nokia

• Independent Mobile Portals– Halebop, djuice, Mviva, iobox bought by Terra Mobile

• Financial Organizations– Nordea specialized WAP portals for shopping and banking

Third Party Billing and Payment Providers

• Early versions of WAP and i-Mode did not provide end-to-end security. This resulted in content providers depending on MNOs and third-party providers for billing.– Pre-paid cards– Variations of mobile wallet by bankc to counter Mobile

operators

• Other initiatives include:– MeT, Mobile electronic Transaction– Mobey forum, the Mobile Forum– Global Mobile Commerce Interoperability Group

Mobile Device Manufacturers

• Their design decisions determine the functionality and standards available on mobile platforms

• CPU speed and memory capacity• OS• Communication standards supported – GPRS,

WCDMA• Microbrowser pre-installed• SIM, WIM, certificate-based authentication,…• Location tracking functionality• Applications, MP3, Videostreaming,…

Wireless Application Service Providers

• Application Development

• Hosting and Managing the application

• Developing the wireless bridge

• Hosting and managing the wireless bridge

Location Information Brokers

• Responsible for determining and updating user’s position

• Supplying information to content providers, mobile portals,….

• Driven by location sensitive applications, regulations like E-911 in the US

Players:– Cambridge Positioning Systems– Cell-Loc over AMPS and CDMA