Disrupted Phone Call by Chat App

Taken from "Chat apps are extinguishing phone calls"

Annual time spent on mobile calls in the UK fell year-over-year (YoY) for the first time, according to report by UK telecommunications regulatory authority Ofcom. Total mobile call volumes dropped by 2.5 billion minutes (1.7%) last year to 149 billion, down from 151 billion in 2016.

The British regulator attributes the downtick in time consumers spend making phone calls to the rising popularity of mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat.

It's likely this slump will continue as the consumer shift to chat apps swells:

• The chat app consumer base is massive and growing. It's estimated that 1.8 billion people worldwide regularly used such apps by the end of 2017, up almost 16% from 2016, according to eMarketer.
• And chat app users are highly active. For instance, 57% of consumers in the UK were active social chat users on mobile in January 2018, which is up 3% annually. Moreover, Android users in the UK spend 25% of their mobile time in chat apps.
• This shift in consumer behavior is impacting the way consumers want to interact with businesses. 54% of consumers already prefer using social messaging channels for customer engagement over legacy channels like phone and email, and 59% of consumers would rather go through additional channels to contact brands just to avoid having to use their voice to communicate.

As chat apps continue to replace legacy channels of communication, they will present a growing opportunity for brands. For businesses looking to increase engagement with customers, improve retention, and boost sales, it's important to shift focus to where customers are already spending a good chunk of their time.

Chat apps provide tools to help businesses target consumers, automate certain communications to enable immediate response times, and simplify the process of entering payment information to complete a purchase. WhatsApp, for example, launched WhatsApp Business API last week, which is a tool that enables larger enterprises to send customers non-promotional notifications like flight delays or appointment confirmations.

SURVEY: Trust more to Mobile Operators or OTTs?

Taken from Research Paper from OPENET
CONSUMER SURVEY:Who Do You Trust Most?Mobile Operators or OTTs?

“A digital service is defined as any service accessed and supplied via the internet. For example, social media sites, music and video streaming sites, apps and games, financial services, internet calling, instant messaging, and lifestyle apps and services ”.

Consumers trust their mobile operator more than they trust the OTTs. The reason—people see that their mobile operator has always protected their data. As can be seen from the infographic below, 92% of consumers surveyed said that they’d be open to their mobile operator delivering digital services—as long as they are transparent about it.

There is an opportunity for mobile operators to build on this trust to provide digital services directly to their customers. The types of digital services consumers would most trust their mobile operators to provide. This showed that for music, video, messaging and internet calling services consumers would prefer to deal with their mobile operator rather than go direct to the OTT. When asked the reason why someone would prefer to deal direct with their mobile operator than an OTT there was a clear winner—mobile operators have always protected consumers’ data.

Social media is just one type of digital service and it was interesting to see that there has been a knock-on effect on levels of trust for all digital service companies. 83% of respondents were aware of the Facebook data scandal and 34% said that their trust in digital service companies has decreased.

• 86% agree that companies need to be more transparent “Companies need to be more transparent with their practices around data use”

There has also been a change in perception in the use of free services. Consumers know that their data is the ‘product’ and this effects how they view free digital services. Consumers are less likely to share their personal data as a rule, but also more than half said that they are less likely to share their data in exchange for free digital services.

• More than half say they are less likely to share personal data with OTTs since the scandal, and a similar proportion are less likely to share in exchange for free digital services

• Two thirds would prefer to pay for digital services if it meant they had better controls over data

It’s probably fair to say that free services will always be attractive to certain groups, but someone has to pay. When looking at how free services should be funded, advertising came out on top with only 13% feeling that selling customer data to 3rd parties was acceptable.

Summary 

Mobile operators have a level of trust with consumers that can be built on to enable operators to take a stronger position in the digital value chain. Already we’re seeing operators selling Netflix subscriptions and billing for them. Over half of the people surveyed said that they’d be happy dealing with their mobile operator for digital services, such as video and music services. The main reason for this is that they know that their mobile operator isn’t going to abuse their data. The success of Orange Bank in providing mobile banking services is a clear indication that people do trust their mobile operators with very sensitive data. The Facebook data scandal highlighted that OTTs need to be more transparent and open with their customers. It also highlighted the need for regulation. For years, mobile operators have been crying foul that they’re under tight regulatory control and the OTTs had no such restrictions. Maybe being regulated does have benefits after all. 

The results of this survey are clear: consumers trust companies who are open, accountable and regulated. Operators have an opportunity to build on this trust and sell a range of digital services to their customers. This is already happening and we’ll see more content and telecoms mergers in the next couple of years. However, buying content providers isn’t a cost effective option for everyone, so we’ll see increased number of content partnerships. The opportunity for the the mobile operators is to take the lead in these partnerships. This means engaging with the customer for marketing, service delivery and monetisation of digital services. In order to maintain consumer trust they need to be open and transparent about uses of consumers’ personal data.

Messaging App Usage Resume

Taken from Messaging App Usage Worldwide: eMarketer's Updated Forecast, Leaderboard and Behavioral Analysis

Mobile messaging app usage is expected to hit a milestone in 2017: For the first time, over three-quarters (76.3%) of the world’s smartphone users will use one. While local standouts like WeChat and Line dominate in their home countries and a handful of other markets, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are the most widely used platforms worldwide.

• A mobile messaging app provides private one-to-one or one-to-many communication between registered users (via mobile phone number or user ID). Its messages and calls—voice or video—are then transmitted via data connections and the mobile web.
• The number of mobile messaging app users worldwide is still growing at a significant rate, even after three years of double-digit growth. eMarketer expects growth will drop to single-digit rates in 2019, as penetration among smartphone users nears 80%.
• This year, the bulk of new users (63%) will come from five countries—China, India, the US, Indonesia and Brazil.
• More mobile phone internet users in Asia-Pacific will use messaging apps in 2017 than in any other region—75.9%. Western Europe and Latin America will rank second and third, at 65.6% and 64.1%, respectively.
• On a global scale, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are the most widely used messaging apps in terms of monthly active users (MAUs). WhatsApp tends to be used more frequently than Messenger—but not more often than WeChat is used in China. WeChat has the highest ratio of daily active users (DAUs) to MAUs vs. the other leading apps.
• Even though many of the leading messaging apps have evolved into sophisticated platforms with functions enabling more than direct messaging, the top activities conducted by users are still centered around the apps’ primary purpose—communication. Text-based messaging is still the most popular mode, but the types of messages sent have expanded to include recorded audio and video, emojis and stickers, voice calls and video calls.

"This will be another year of double-digit growth in the number of mobile messaging app users. By the end of 2017, 1.82 billion people worldwide will regularly use such apps, an annual increase of 15.5%."