Mustafaekmen's Blog

Mobile Payments

mustafaekmen — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:12:30 +0000

It sounds like mobile payments will be another tremendous opportunity for mobile operators, yes Google has already started and it is for sure google wallet is a successful innovation,product but I will think just from mobile operators perspective. It is well known that operators own lots of user information but they don’t have so much for users’ payments; what they buy, to whom they lend etc. It seems like people will prefer mobile payments and probably, their purchasing habits will evolve with this new model limits. Besides it is up to mobile operators to lead this way and to see how the customers use mobile payments, on the other hand if they have their customers purchasing data they will have chance to mine this data, lets say if a customer in Istanbul buys a plane ticket to London then the operator can offer its most appropriate roaming offers to its customer etc. Finally i think if the mobile operators can have a rich mobile applications portfolio that can support their mobile payments system then the opportunity will be even bigger; I think Turkcell’s mobile payments card Cep-T Paracard can be assessed in this way.

Deal/Offer Web Companies Brief Analysis

mustafaekmen — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:55:01 +0000

There is a strong growth rate and lots of new entrants in deal, offer business in the entire world. But there is also some serious weakness of this model that should be considered;

-One of the key reasons why this model works is that merchants have excess supply that they can sell for a discount, and this is due to some national and international global economic problems and it is unclear if merchants will continue to offer discounts in a better economic environment.

-Merchants cannot guarantee loyalty of the customers coming from these kinds of web sites since they are ultimately price sensitive

-Merchants risks to lose their regular customer base because of the discounted customers

But;

-Besides, these sites can customize and enhance their offers according to individuals that can attract more customers and merchants, since this one will not just resolve merchants’ sale problem but also it will help them to reach the right customers for their products and reduce the friction problem.

-Emerging Markets seems to be also appropriate for this kind of business, since economic fluctuations are frequent and consumption is growing. From merchant perspective, they don’t have all online sales forces and they have an open culture for bargains. From customers perspective, internet, social web and deal sites are now widely used and people are open to buy discounted products within a group of friends, like driving a Ferrari for a very limited time period.

Source for further readings : How Sustainable Is Groupon’s Business Model? Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2784)

Product Centric Management in Mobile Operators

mustafaekmen — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:01:03 +0000

Mobile Operators should reorganize their IT structure to be more productive and efficient for bringing new products in the market and also to reduce the development and management complexity, to increase reusability and to have a product map that can easily attached among each other. It is important especially for mobile applications products and services because all these applications require content and user information. If a single and simple map can be maintained then each product will be likely more customized and accurate to meet customer requirements and will be better in terms of usability.

Source for further readings : The IT Factor in Mobile Services, The McKinsey Quarterly