SA is emerging as one of the most competitive markets in the mobile marketing space, and leading the way in how the continent responds to international trends.
According to Brett St Clair, SA country manager of mobile advertising platform AdMob, the mature global markets have led the way, with developing markets following. “But they're following in a very different way and SA is defining how that emerging market responds to global trends.”
He points out that SA is probably the most competitive mobile marketing country on the planet, with 98% fill rate and making up a quarter (250 million) of the billion adverts requested in Africa last month. While the developed world goes the way of apps and rich media, locally, it's all about rich media on mobile Web.
“SA is mobile Internet,” says St Clair, adding that a fundamental element of mobile Internet is that it's optimised to the handset. “Subscriber experience is key, with a knock-on effect to publishers and advertisers.”
He explains that what really caused the kick-off for mobile globally was the iPhone. “It allowed a rich user experience and was well-priced, and then all the other smartphones came to the party - offering apps, delivering apps to the handsets, and offering rich handset functionality. That really drove the whole market.”
However, he notes that local uptake did not keep up with the global explosion in these devices. “While the rest of the world saw this massive boom in smartphones, in SA you had nothing. A handful of people adopted them, with an estimated 90 000 to 100 000 iPhones in the market, and about 5.4 million impressions.
“But if you look at mobile Internet traffic in SA on lower-end handsets, that stands at 275 million impressions.”
Average Joe
In a recent AdMob study, tracking the South African mobile market, conducted by Nielsen in November 2009, it emerged mobile Internet users are split almost evenly between female (49%) and male (51%), predominantly in the LSM 5 to 7 category, and between the ages 35 and 49.
“From an LSM perspective, there's an indication that mobile Internet use strongly reflects the country's population. The mass population understands mobile Internet, and they can use it. It's your common person on the street,” notes St Clair.
According to a recent Accenture survey on consumer electronics use, consumers in emerging markets are far more interested in mobile technologies than those in mature markets.
“This study dispels the general misconception that mature markets are leaders in technology adoption,” says Mark Joseph, director of communications and hi-tech at Accenture.
The survey also shows emerging market consumers rank the importance of home-based connection lower than mobile connections, valuing items such as mobile phones, MP3 players and portable gaming systems.
St Clair notes that the main challenges in the market are handset capability - rolling out enough handsets that are GPRS-enabled and getting them configured to connect to the networks. “That is SA's number one mobile Internet problem, which the operators are addressing.”
Another hurdle is fixed data plans, both post-paid and pre-paid. “The pre-paid cost per meg needs to be a lot lower.” Then there's education: “The publishing bases, such as major media houses, need to play a role in educating their users on the type of mobile services available and how to use them.”
All hail Android
According to St Clair, mobile Internet in emerging markets will strengthen as lower cost smartphones become available. “Chinese handset manufacturers are making Android smartphones for $25. Low-end smartphones are going to be snapped up.
“Last quarter, we saw 300% growth in smartphones, in terms of iPhones and RIM devices.” He adds, however, that Android phones haven't really taken off in SA, mostly because operators haven't brought out the right price points on handsets, or delivered the right data packages with them.
Conversely, around seven million Android devices were sold worldwide in 2009, with this increasing to 76 million in 2012, according to an AdMob study on Android, released this month. The company adds more than 50 Android devices will be available by the end of the year.
JBB Research's CEO, Julien Blin, says the fact that Android is an open source mobile OS is a key competitive advantage. “This allows carriers to create their own versions of Android, and carriers like being able to offer customised products, as it can help them differentiate their offering and attract new customers.”
Richer, better, faster
St Clair notes that users will keep demanding better experiences and richer content, with Apple bringing in innovations under its iAd service, such as using HTML 5 to allow users to play games from a banner ad. “We're going to keep pushing to bring a richer and better experience.”
According to St Clair, there are three key elements to mobile: reach, interaction, and measurability. “There's no medium that can give you as much reach as mobile - you have one billion Internet users in the world, 4.6 billion mobile subscribers; it's going to be on a scale that we've never seen.”
He adds that interaction is where rich media comes into effect. “It's not just a push message; social media is rocketing because of the interaction mobile provides - the biggest amount of data on any network is Facebook.
“Then there's measurability; here's a device that can essentially measure in real-time where you are, what you're doing, and what you've done.”
In a recent Gartner report, on the top 10 consumer mobile applications for 2012, the firm makes it clear that mobile power is now in the hands of the consumer. Research director Sandy Shen says: “Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the prerogative of mobile carriers.
“The increasing consumer interest in smartphones, the participation of Internet players in the mobile space, and the emergence of application stores and cross-industry services are reducing the dominance of mobile carriers. Each player will influence how the application is delivered and experienced by consumers, who ultimately vote with their attention and spending power.”
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