How has the ecosystem evolved with the daily habits of mobile Internet users?

How has the ecosystem evolved with the daily habits of mobile Internet users? The journey from the PC Internet to the current age of the Smart device Internet is charting an exciting path on how the market ecosystem is evolving with the daily habits of mobile Internet users of today ... 

In the last 20 years, we have witnessed 4 Phases in the Journey to the Mobile Internet. From the age of the "PC Internet" to the "Feature Phone Internet", "Smartphone Internet" and now the "Smart device Internet".  We have also seen how users of the Internet have evolved in their daily habits of information and content consumption - this is evident as we review the market development in the five pillars in the digital content Internet business. 

How has the evolution been in the ecosystem during the 4 phases in our journey to the mobile Internet?

(1) Content has grown richer in variety and depth

• From black and white to colour and having depth in colour in graphics (remember days of black and white operator logos, picture messages in Nokia feature phones)
• From mono tone ring tones to polymorphic ring tones to MP3s and today's streaming and high-def music services
• From simple flash and java games to today's rich app store games and multi-player social games
• and the list goes on ... video, TV, 3D, augmented reality characters and so on ... consumers are spoilt for choice

(2) Advertising has evolved across multiple screen sizes, devices, content and purpose

• Ads are no longer restricted to the TV (broadcast, content and ads in DVDs) and PCs (with multimedia cards allowing for TV, video playing, radio listening).
• Ads are now also seen in various apps (e.g. chat, youtube); and apps are now in Smart TVs.
• Ads are evolving as content for the brands - attempt from brands to engage audiences.

(3) Access to Internet and content is widely availed to a global audience

• Content is now availed through TVs, radio, PCs, laptops, feature phones, smartphones, tablets, phablets, wearables, and so on in all manner of smart mobile devices - one of the trends in recent years and into 2013 ... 
• Feature phones are also getting smarter and driving mobile Internet access and innovative content consumption, especially in the emerging markets where mobile phones outnumber PCs.

(4) Payment for content (and now products) and the players in the ecosystem are fast evolving to cater to consumers' lifestyles and daily habits

• No longer restricted to just credit cards and PayPal,
• Operator mobile billing via sms, money online payment methods like bank transfers, scratch cards, COD (cash-on-delivery) are offering alternative payment modes for not only digital contents but potentially also for physical products and merchandise.

(5) Fulfilment, the last mile in terms of delivery of products and content and personalised bundled offers is being invested 

• Besides Amazon who leads the pack in this area, China's Alibaba and local ecommerce players like Redmart are investing in owning logistics fulfilment to ensure continual customer satisfaction and retention.

How are digital content players working to shape daily habits of mobile Internet users?

• News is sticky - look at Yahoo, local news sites like Malaysia's Malaysiakini.com, Indonesia's Detik.com and you will see them feature in the top 20 Alexa rankings for the local markets. And as for apps for news ... new ways to read news online are constantly evolving in their offers.

• Communication - mobile instant messaging (social chat), private chat, mobile Internet call (Skype), or good ol' email, is a hotly contested space in the market today, globally and especially more so in Asia.

• During Echelon June 2013 Asia startups event in Singapore, a number of players I met with are focusing on apps which cater to the following daily habits of users - take a look at the slideshare showcase below.

Echelon June 2013 Singapore - showcase of mobile apps and startups to daily habits of mobile Internet users by Nelson Wee from Nelson Wee

Consumers are growing spoilt for choice for content, products and mobile devices and appliances from where they can consume content and buy products from. With more choice fighting for a growing yet at the same limited attention span of the consumers, lots of innovation and change in the ecosystem will be taking place in this current age of "smart device Internet" and future ages to come - this indeed spells out for more exciting moments to come to see how the daily habits of the mobile Internet users will continue to evolve.

For your reference, please see below for the rest of the presentation deck which I presented my "Journey into the Mobile of the Internet" recently on 19 June 2013 at Salesforce.com Biz Academy (I would like to thank Sultan Semlali for this wonderful opportunity). Appreciate your comments.

Journey into the mobile of the Internet - Nelson Wee Salesforce.com Biz Academy Presentation 19 june 2013 from Nelson Wee

I look forward to continue with my conversations with you.

Talk soon~
Nelson Wee
Profile: Nelson Wee, Singapore
Blog: http://myovi.blogspot.com
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee 
Twitter: @nelsonwee

1-2-3 to the eBook market

In my previous post, I wrote about how content consumption is going increasingly mobile as mobile devices are personal and always near you.  In this day and age of the Mobile Internet when time is now compressed more than ever, consumers are adapting their lifestyles in various activities like reading.  With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 in the US and rest of the world in 2009, eBooks and eMagazines are now changing the ways consumers are interacting with the book media.

Here is a quick 1-2-3 to the eBook market:

(1) eBooks Global Market adoption: US leads, followed by the UK, emergent in Rest of the World

• Books business is BIG BUSINESS - around the world, people spent US$108 billion on books in 2009.
• In the US, eBooks have grown from 0.6 percent in 2008 of the total books trade  market, to 3% in 2009 and more recently to 7% in 2010.  Expect to see eBooks to have a market share of 22.5% of consumer books in 2015!
• The UK while lagging behind the US with 1.5% market share of consumer books in 2010 is expected to see this share rise to 14.2% in 2015

(2) eBooks can be consumed across multiple screens and ways

• eReaders (Amazon Kindle introduced in 2007) as the dedicated  eReading device which ensures a real book reading experience.
• Tablets (iPad in introduced in 2010) as the multifunction alternative reading devices, while on the move, e.g. with eMagazines.
• Smartphones for short mobile sequels read during daily commute.
• PCs, laptops which are great for reading special interest group eBooks, reference, education books.

(3) eBooks and eMagazines provide opportunities as ancillary channels

• Publishers can look forward to reinvent themselves in the book publishing value chain as content providers.
• With eBooks, publishers now have in their hands ancillary channels to market with potentially lower costs and higher margins.
• Publishers could earn ancillary revenues by going beyond the text in the books and repurposing the content to audio, video and even games.

Just like music, tv and video, the books industry has been experiencing disruptive changes in differing degrees around the world - led by the US and impacting the rest of the world through the proliferation of the mobile internet and multimedia consumption devices.

If you are a publisher, are you looking into eBooks?  If not, why?

If you are a consumer, how would you see eBooks changing your reading behaviors, now and in the future? 

Look forward to your views.


warm regards, later~
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee