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Content and the battle for new markets

Joanne Carew
By Joanne Carew, ITWeb Cape-based contributor.
Cape Town, 09 Oct 2015

Providing users with access to content and platforms without restrictive cost barriers can empower those with limited resources to experience the benefits of mobile services.

In developing regions where a lot of people do not own smart devices, it is essential to create attractive use cases to introduce this group of people to the mobile medium.

Zero-rated Web sites and free access to services opens the door for unconnected markets and allows these communities to explore and experience what is on offer, become attached to the offering and eventually be willing to pay for it.

The intricacies of funding and facilitating these free models was discussed by a group of mobile experts during a panel discussion at the GSMA Mobile 360 conference in Cape Town yesterday.

For Candice Goodman, chair emeritus for SA at the Mobile Marketing Association and CEO of Mobitainment, it comes down to value. "The content that we are creating and that users create has to be valuable and have relevance. It cannot be substantiated by empty rewards."

As far as funding this model goes, Goodman suggested big brands and businesses have the budget to reach out to the audiences they want to communicate with and provide free services to them in order to connect with them.

For these brands, the bi-directional nature of mobile - which allows you to talk to audiences but also hear their feedback - provides the incredible opportunity to find out what their customers actually want, she continued.

Funding is one of the key challenges in the developing world, according Sanjana Bhardwaj, chief of health and nutrition at The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) SA.

Many of the projects run by Bhardwaj and UNICEF make use of SMSes to communicate with patients and this takes up a sizable chunk of the capital allocated for these endeavours. She believes partnerships between mobile operators and non-profits to assist with the funding of these types of projects is essential.

For Ben Moskowitz, senior development director at The Mozilla Foundation, there is a common misconception that free services and zero-rated offerings are meant to address affordability. But these initiatives are not about making the Internet more affordable; they are about providing incentives for users and increasing their confidence, capabilities and awareness around what value this content can add to their lives.

"You need to know what you can do before you will be willing to pay for it."

According to Moskowitz, "zero-rating" always crops up during discussions around content literacy. The mobile Internet battle is taking place at the intersection of providing new users with the necessary literacies to understand what they are engaging with and coming up with methods to fund this model in a manner that is still profitable.

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