Dont Blink

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Dont Blink!
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Distinctive content

• There is a massive amount of content on offer.
  How do we make ours stand out?
• Branded doesnt necessarily do better than non
  branded so there is a chance to compete with
  something completely new.
• What can you offer that is different to anyone
  else?
• You need a Unique Selling Point.
• The buyers arent interested in doing a deal for
  a one-off or small selection because of the cost
  and time involved in contracting. To begin, you
  need a large selection.
• You also need variety. Theres no place in this
  market for the 1 trick pony!

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Content opportunities

• wallpapers
• MMS
• 3G
• Games
• Ringtones
• Mp3, music
• Mobile TV
• Embedded content
• Location based gaming
• Augmented reality..

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The players

• The content creator thats you and the other
  million or so players out there!
• The aggregators - theyre the people who gather
  the content together and manage the telco
  customer relations.
• The alligators theyre the small time wanna
  bes who dont have the resources to play
  seriously. Avoid these guys because theyll just
  take a chunk of money for nothing.
• The formatters theyre the people who will
  format your content for the 300 different
  handsets out there. Dont get involved in this
  side of the business because it is the formatters
  responsibility to guarantee to the telcos that
  the content will work on the different handsets
  without any problems. Even a single mistake will
  cost the formatter thousands of dollars!
• The telcos theyre the ones who own the mobile
  networks.
• The customers the ones who pay for all this!

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(1) Example of a mobile supply chain
Content Aggregator
Formatter
Content creator
Carrier
E-store
Customers
Customers
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The deal

• Dont expect to get paid anything up front. If
  you do, it will be peanuts and you wont get any
  other share of the pie.
• Never do an exclusive world deal. Try to make
  your deal as open as possible so that you can
  pull out if its not working. If it is working,
  the Aggregator wont abandon you but if its not
  working, youre screwed if youve signed an
  exclusive.
• Dont expect to do a deal with the Telcos.
  Theyre not interested in dealing with small time
  players so unless youre Warner Brothers, forget
  it!
• Be prepared to have to produce specific content
  for each aggregator. They all have different
  markets and therefore, differing requirements.
• You need deep pockets. It takes a LONG time to
  get paid. The worst territory in the world for
  payment is Australia. Expect to wait a MINIMUM of
  12 18 months after the sales for your money.

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Show me the money

• Australia not here. The market is just too
  small.
• UK yes, its here. A good sized market that is
  eager for new content.
• Continental Europe yes its here too and the
  market is massive.
• Middle East no money here. Theyve got the
  money but theyre way too conservative.
• US Canada no money here yet surprisingly.
  This is because the Americans shot themselves in
  the mobile foot a few years back and now theyre
  the most backward market in the world.
• South America no money here. Theyre struggling
  to eat so dont expect them to buy your
  entertainment.
• SE Asia theres money here but they have more
  than enough content makers of their own and they
  like their own stuff better!
• China, Korea same as SE Asia
• Africa no money here either. Even worse off
  than South America!

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The truth of mobile.

• Fact or fiction? Theres an insatiable demand for
  mobile content worldwide.
• Fact but.. Its a massively over serviced market.
• Fact or fiction? Everyone wants 3G content.
• Fiction. The carriers want 3G content to try and
  encourage people to start using 3G services. 3G
  is gradually gaining traction but 4G is not far
  off now either.
• Fact or fiction? Were gonna make a killing!
  Right?!

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Making a mobile killing part 1

• Lets pick a test market, say the UK.
• It has a large population.
• They speak a vaguely similar language to us and
  have a similar sensibility when it comes to story
  telling and humour.
• Theyre early adopters of mobile technology.
• Theyre also enthusiastic buyers of mobile
  content.
• The UK is the highest paying mobile market so how
  can we go wrong?!

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Making a mobile killing part 2

• Theres around 60 million people in the UK.
• 20 million of them are Vodafone UK customers.
• For arguments sake, lets say 40 of Vodafones
  customers are in the content market this week.
  Thats 8 million customers just this week!
• Of those, probably only 10 will actually get
  around to browsing for content. Thats 800,000,
  still pretty good!
• But Vodafone has at least 40 pages of content! On
  average that means on 20,000 people might make it
  to the page youre on.
• But your stuff is just part of whats on offer on
  that page and youll be lucky to get 10 of those
  people previewing your content. Down to 2,000
  people.
• Probably about 5 will actually make a purchase.
  Thats 100 sales of your content this week. Off
  to a good start!

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Making a mobile killing part 3

• So youve made 100 sales in your first week!
• Unfortunately, theres a bit of a content sale
  going on and the price is just 50p per unit this
  month (Think of about AUD1.00).
• Of course Vodafone takes 50 so that leaves
  0.50.
• And the Formatter takes 33 of the balance for
  all their hard work. That leaves 0.33.
• The Aggregator takes 50 of whats left. Thats
  0.165.
• Your share is 0.165 ( x 100 sales).
• Total weekly sales 16.50!
• Are you excited yet? (Perhaps youd better not
  order that new Aston Martin just yet.)

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Making a mobile killing part 4 - yes, theres
even more!

• Of course theres a few other costs that we cant
  forget either.
• Theres Withholding Tax from the country where
  the sales were made. That can be up to 50.
• Your bank will charge you for the foreign
  exchange plus their usual account fees.
• Your ISP and telco will charge you for all the
  uploading and downloading of content.
• And many Aggregators dont want you to invoice
  them unless your minimum bill reaches a certain
  level. Otherwise its too much paperwork and
  trouble!
• Oh yes, and dont forget to pay your tax!

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Making a mobile killing part 5 - yes, theres
still even more!

• Other challenges in the mobile arena
• Broadcasters are flooding the market with cheap
  content. Some are even giving it away to promote
  their shows because theyre losing serious market
  share to all this online stuff.
• The Aggregators and Telcos and doing discounting
  and bundling to attract customers but this is
  further reducing revenue streams.
• And its like real estate.. Position, position,
  position! If youre not on the best pages..
  youre not in the business
• And then theres the Alligators and Aggregators.
  How do you work out which is which?

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The future..

• Theres no doubt that the market is growing and
  the volume of sales is increasing.
• But prices are decreasing as Aggregators and
  Telcos try to keep their customers and win new
  ones.
• Broadcasters and distributors will be
  increasingly dumping masses of content onto the
  market, possibly even for free. This is a
  desperate bid to save their flailing broadcast
  businesses from being eaten by IPTV and other
  forms of online entertainment.
• To try to remain attractive to the market, the
  Aggregators and Telcos will continue to move
  towards more extreme mobile entertainment like
  augmented reality. Thats making it tougher
  because this type of entertainment requires more
  development and therefore higher production cost.
• So as for the mobile business.. DONT BLINK or
  youll miss it!

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Its the business of the future to be
dangerous.

• A.N. Whitehead

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Blue Rocket Productions

• www.blue-rocket.com.au
• David Gurney