MMS IS a success, after all!
Written on Monday, June 21, 2010
One of the mobile services that we have yet to see take off is MMS. This is true, regardless of whether you (as I) think it will eventually, or very much have your doubts about what the whole fuss is about.
I recently came across a very interesting article discussing in length the potential of MMS, and why it should NOT be considered a failure just yet. It's one of the best articles I've come across in a while, making some really good points, but it's rather long,so I would strongly urge you to give it a read and then come back for my comments, in order not to make this post too long.
Ok go!
Are you back? Interesting, wasn't it? Here's my views on some of the points made:
One of the most interesting points raised is about how misunderstood MMS has been. I agree there are a number of services it can be used for, that have huge potential. I 100% agree that it should not be considered a failure, because it still has the potential to generate huge revenues, when put to good use, as Tomi Ahonen points out.
BUT, I would say that so far it HAS been a failure. I DON'T agree it has been misunderstood, in the sense that the brilliant ideas Tomi gives us are indeed valid (now), but if that was why MMS was developed by network ops, we would have seen this happen already. No, MMS is not a replacement for SMS, but that was why it came out, I think - and this is my personal view - but it did not fulfil that purpose. Should we throw away then? Certainly not, and Tomi's article is the best proof of that, because we can still put it to good use.
NOT PERSON TO PERSON
...
Today, six years later, China reports that 70% of all MMS messaging traffic is A2P traffic (says ZTE in 2010). Note that in China there are already 134 million active users of MMS just on the China Mobile network, we're looking at enormous reach here.
And compare that to Flickr, the world's most used picture sharing social networking site. Flickr globally has about 50 million users. So just in one network in just one country, China, there are almost 3 times as many active paying users of MMS than all registered users to the free picture sharing site of Flickr worldwide.
I fully embrace Tomi's views here. The MMS potential lies in app-to-person.
ASIA IS MMS LEADER
Interesting to see this -- that's where all you guys developing MMS solutions should market your products, isn't it?
Asia is a much bigger market than Europe. In fact, much bigger than the U.S. also. And with the MMS adoption rates Tomi reports, this is a no-brainer really.
MMS VS SMS REALITY CHECK
I think that some of the comparisons made by Tomi for MMS vs. SMS, are not 100% spot on. Yes it is much more fair to compare the two technologies 8 years into their lifetime, but the measure to be used should not be absolute (e.g. 1B users, 30B dollar revenues), rather it should be relevant to the total market size. This was not the same in 1993, when SMS started, and in 2002 when MMS was launched. So we should be looking at percentages rather than absolute values, I believe, because it's much easier to make 1B in the mobile services sector today, than it was e.g. 10 years ago.
FUTURE - NOT FACEBOOK, MORE MMS
A good reason why is of course that secretive part to mobile phone messaging that is so addictive with SMS. The Pew Study reported that 15% of US youth admit to receiving sexually explicit or nude pictures from friends (meaning in all likelihood the number is far bigger). You can more 'safely' send a picture that the parents might not like, if you use the MMS feature on your phone, than posting it on a social networking site, where your parents may see it too.. So don't think MMS will end anytime soon.
Yes, 100% spot on. Like with SMS messaging, the youth is picking up fast on MMS. And their spending force is certainly not negiligible, so MMS is certainly here to stay. In fact, person-to-person MMS will only really take off for this youth audience, if you ask me.
ULTIMATE ENGAGEMENT MARKETING PLATFORM
So what do we do with MMS? Yes, we can use it to send pictures, that is not what I argue is the main utility from MMS. The main utility is media content. Lets have morning TV shows send MMS cooking recipes like they do in the UK and the soap operas send a teaser 5 minutes from tomorrow's episode to fans at the end of today's soap opera episode as they do in South Korea, and have the TV's top chefs give cooking advice like Poland's top TV chef does with Knorr. Lets have brands engage with customers like BMW did with its winter tyres MMS campaign in Germany. MMS is perfectly suited for advertisers, because of its enormous reach - bigger than the internet, print or TV - and because MMS is inherently interactive, and is as easy to use by consumers as SMS. Blyk out of the UK showed tons of clever engagement marketing campaigns starting with the iconic L'Oreal MMS campaigns. We can deliver coupons, basic advergames, music, video clips, pictures and longer form news stories via MMS. It is the ultimate media channel and the ultimate engagement marketing platform. But lets not condemn it just because we don't like to send pictures using it haha..
Great points. Am already on it.
Great stuff from Tomi, thanks for such a quality article.. It'd been a while since I'd come across such a good one.
Great stuff from Tomi, thanks for such a quality article.. It'd been a while since I'd come across such a good one.
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mms,
mobile services
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Great article. Its nice to read about MMS in a positive light. We invested heavily in building MMS delivery tools and started at a time when most analysts thought we were crazy. But now with the A2P capability and many case studies in retail about the value and benefit of MMS for coupons we are finally seeing the adoption of MMS for mobile marketing and advertising in large scale loyalty and customer management scenarios. Its no longer a dabbling of a few coupons but integrated into a number of our customer's core CRM strategies.
In Australia one of our customers is a top 20 retailer and is rolling out a new national shopper loyalty program where MMS is the core discovery & notification process; weekly!
Nice article, i agreed that MMS is a potential tool in future, and i create a blog to discuss mobile marketing, welcome to visit and leave some comments!!!
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