The newly christened Digital Service Providers (DSPs) are all keen to partner with telcos. Telcos now see the advantage – they are driving traffic – but what is in it for the DSPs?
The answer will vary slightly, but all see the partnerships driving the sophistication and personalisation of their products. As far as Facebook is concerned, “networks have spectrum.” With spectrum (and knowledge) can come great things. The combined knowledge of Facebook and Tripadvisor and telcos will enable true personalisation. Together, this knowledge can be used to reduce churn, increase loyalty, develop products and, ultimately, build a joint revenue stream.
Facebook is now offering telcos their ‘audience insight’ so that information about location, handset and tariff plan can be combined with social information. This is vital to Facebook, particularly as they have recently re-launched their ‘social’ ad server, Atlas. Instead of simply addressing the magical ‘18-24 year old female group’, knowing that Jenny’s device is two years old, or that Fiona went over her data limit three months in a row, but used virtually none of her text allowance is good knowledge. As long as this information is actually used (how many of us have had the phone call simply asking whether are happy with the service, which is a waste of everyone’s time?) then it is potentially very powerful.
Tripadvisor is working with telcos to keep roamers using their service while travelling. Deezer and other music streaming services are seeing a significant increase in customer numbers, while their telco partners are benefitting from a fresher brand. The propensity to churn with music bundled with a plan is significantly lower.
While everyone admits that stable revenue streams are not here yet, the models are beginning to emerge. And, tools and knowledge that reduce churn, increase loyalty and at least provide the opportunities for intelligent upselling and cross selling must be worth investigating.
On my planet, ‘DSPs’ are what ‘CSPs’ (telcos) are aspiring to become, with or without insurgent internet ‘partners’. It’s all terribly confusing…