Jose Manuel Garcia Sanchez
New Trends in Internet Market
An Exemplary of Strategic Chances and Risks for the Mobile Network Industry
ISBN: 978-3-8366-0360-7
Druck Diplomica® Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, 2007
Zugl. Technische Fachhochschule Berlin, Berlin, Deutschland, MA-Thesis / Master, 2007
Dieses Werk ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Die dadurch begründeten Rechte,
insbesondere die der Übersetzung, des Nachdrucks, des Vortrags, der Entnahme von
Abbildungen und Tabellen, der Funksendung, der Mikroverfilmung oder der
Vervielfältigung auf anderen Wegen und der Speicherung in Datenverarbeitungsanlagen,
bleiben, auch bei nur auszugsweiser Verwertung, vorbehalten. Eine Vervielfältigung
dieses Werkes oder von Teilen dieses Werkes ist auch im Einzelfall nur in den Grenzen
der gesetzlichen Bestimmungen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland in der jeweils geltenden Fassung zulässig. Sie ist grundsätzlich
vergütungspflichtig. Zuwiderhandlungen unterliegen den Strafbestimmungen des
Urheberrechtes.
Die Wiedergabe von Gebrauchsnamen, Handelsnamen, Warenbezeichnungen usw. in
diesem Werk berechtigt auch ohne besondere Kennzeichnung nicht zu der Annahme,
dass solche Namen im Sinne der Warenzeichen- und Markenschutz-Gesetzgebung als frei
zu betrachten wären und daher von jedermann benutzt werden dürften.
Die Informationen in diesem Werk wurden mit Sorgfalt erarbeitet. Dennoch können
Fehler nicht vollständig ausgeschlossen werden, und die Diplomarbeiten Agentur, die
Autoren oder Übersetzer übernehmen keine juristische Verantwortung oder irgendeine
Haftung für evtl. verbliebene fehlerhafte Angaben und deren Folgen.
© Diplomica Verlag GmbH
http://www.diplom.de, Hamburg 2007
Printed in Germany
LEBENSLAUF
Persönliche Angaben
José Manuel García Sánchez
Geb.: 14.01.1978
Grosse Präsidentenstr. 5, 10178 Berlin
Tel.: 0176 22120126; 030 / 48492048
JMG_Sanchez@web.de
Studium
Okt. 2005 - Feb 2007:
International Technology Transfer Management an der TFH Berlin
(Masterstudiengang, FiBBA und ACQUIN-Akkreditierung). (Note: 1.4)
Masterarbeit: "New Trends In Internet Market An Exemplary Evaluation Of Strategic
Chances And Risks For The Mobile Network Industry". (Note: 1.0)
Sept. 1996 - Juni 2001:
Telekommunikationsingenieur (Telekommunikationsinformatik und
Nachrichtentechnik) an der Technischen Hochschule für Telekommunikation der
Polytechnischen Universität von Madrid.
Diplomarbeit: "Anwendung von Suchtechniken genetischer Algorithmen für die
Bestimmung der optimalen Lösung". Spezialisierung: Telematik, Planung und
Steuerung von Netzen (Note: 9.0 von max. 10.0)
Berufliche Erfahrungen
Seit April 2007:
Business Development, Akquisition, IT-Systems bei URSUS Kapital Berlin
Tätigkeiten: Investorenakquise- und Betreuung, Researches, Analysen aller Art,
internationale Kommunikation mit Kunden; Website- und Datenbankerstellung und
Verwaltung.
Dez. 2005 April 2007
Werkstudent bei Siemens AG Berlin
Tätigkeiten:
Erstellung eines HTML-Interface für Anfrage, Modifikation,
Update und Kontrolle von Datenbanken für Projektleitung
Nov. 2004 Mai 2005:
Privater Anbieter von Lösungen für IT-Probleme
Tätigkeiten: Hilfe bei der Erstellung von Internetseiten, Arbeit mit Excel, Photoshop, MS-
Office. Übersetzungen von WebSeiten ins Spanische.
Mai 2004 Apr. 2005:
Mitarbeiter im Fitnessstudio MG Fitness, Stuttgart
Tätigkeiten: Verbesserung und Überwachung der EDV zur Verwaltung von Kundendaten,
Kostenkontrolle, Administration; Empfang; Kursleiter
Nov. 2002 Nov. 2003:
Analyst und Programmierer in der Informatikabteilung der Firma El Corte Inglés, im
Bereich "Ticketing und Reisen" (Zusammenschluss der Systeme für Tele-Verkauf von
Karten)
Tätigkeiten: Anforderungsanalyse; Projektleitung und Kontrolle mit Excel und MS-
Project. Programmieren in Visual C++.
Sept.2001 Sept. 2002: Software-Systementwickler für die Luftfahrtkontrolle mit der Programmiersprache
ADA, in der Firma Indra ATM, Madrid
Tätigkeiten: Erarbeitung von Lösungstechniken genetischer Algorithmen, Anwendung
der Tools TCL und TCL-TK für graphische Darstellungen, Qualitätssicherung von
Software
Sept. 2000 Aug. 2001: Praktikant beim F&E-Projekt bei Firma Philips Eindhoven, Madrid
Tätigkeiten: Programmieren von Echtzeitsystemen (mit C++ und VisualC++), Verbindung
zwischen MS-Windows und Trimedia
Juni 2000 Sept. 2000:
Praktikum in der Firma Sema Group, Madrid
Tätigkeiten: Administration und Kontrolle von Datenbanken, Programmieren in SQL und
SQL-PLUS, Unix-Systemadministrator, Teilnahme an der Erarbeitung von Projekten mit
JAVA und C
Sonstige Ausbildung
Sprachen:
Englisch: Hohes Niveau in Wort und Schrift, TOEFL- und First Certificate
Deutsch: Mittleres Niveau in Schrift, höheres Niveau in mündlicher Kommunikation
(Teilnahme an Sprachkursen der Volkshochschule Stuttgart und der TFH Berlin)
Spanisch: Muttersprache
EDV-Kenntnisse:
Programmiersprachen: Visual Basic und VBScript, ASP, HTML, SQL, C, C++, Visual
C++, Java, Turbo Pascal, ADA, UML, Assembler (MCHC11, MC68000-Motorola)
Fundierte Kenntnisse von: TCL-TK, JavaScript (Scriptsprachen); Matlab, Maple;
Crystal Report; Adobe Photoshop, Windows XP und Microsoft Office
Erfahrung in der Projektleitung mit MS-Project
Beherrschung von: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Access
Teilnahme an IT-Kursen:
Nov. 2000: Mikrorobotik-Kurs an der Polytechnischen Universität von Madrid
Nov. 2001: Linux-Kurs an der Polytechnischen Universität von Madrid
Betriebswirtschaftliche Kenntnisse und Führungsqualifikationen
Sept. 2002 Nov. 2002:
Management-Kurs ,,Junge Unternehmer":
Grundlagen der Betriebswirtschaft und der Unternehmensführung, Rechnungswesen,
Marketing, Vortragstechniken, Teamfähigkeit
Sept. 2000 Sept. 2001: Präsident der studentischen Organisation SATELEC:
Veranstaltung von Jobmessen und Firmenforen an der Polytechnischen Universität von
Madrid, Erarbeitung und Vorbereitung von Homepages, Zeitschriften, Werbung, Interviews
Sept. 2000 Sept. 2001: Organisator der Abschlussfahrt des Jahrgangs an der Universität:
Vorbereitung der Fahrt nach Kuba, Durchführung eines Treffens mit Studenten der
kubanischen Universität zum Erfahrungsaustausch, politische und fachliche Diskussionen,
umfangreiches Kulturprogramm
Hobbys und Freizeitaktivitäten
Kulturelle Interessen:
Lateinamerikanische Tänze: hohes Niveau, Teilnahme an Wettbewerben, Showtanz
und Auftritte, Erfahrung als Lehrer
Ehrenamtliche Salsa-Showtanz-Auftritte auf Veranstaltungen (z.B. für Aids-Hilfe, beim
Tag der Kultur in Stuttgart , im Altersheim, ...)
Kino: kurze Spielfilme für Studentenwettbewerbe
Zeichnen und Malerei: Erfolgreiche Teilnahme an Wettbewerben der Ölmalerei und
des kreativen Gestaltens in Madrid
Reisen: Rundreise mit Rucksäcken, Interrailreise
Sport:
Judo: schwarzer Gürtel, Sieger von individuellen und Gruppenwettbewerben
Leichtathletik: Lang- und Marathonlauf
Radsport; Schwimmen ...
Berlin, den 01.06.2007
José Manuel García Sánchez
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
1
0 INDEX
0
INDEX
1
1
GENERAL INFORMATION
5
1.1
I
NTRODUCTION
5
1.2
L
IST OF FIGURES
6
1.3
L
IST OF TABLES
8
2
INTERNET 9
2.1
G
ENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
9
2.1.1
I
NCREASING NUMBER OF USERS
10
2.1.2
I
NCREASING BROADBAND ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
12
2.1.3
H
IGH RATES OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION
13
2.1.4
A
RRIVAL OF THE NEXT INTERNET PARADIGM
: W
EB
2.0 13
2.2
E-MAIL 20
2.2.1
G
ENERAL ANALYSIS
20
2.2.2
C
ONCLUSIONS
23
2.2.3
G
OOGLE AND
Y
AHOO
!
COMPARISON
24
2.3
MEDIA ONLINE
: THE SECOND DIGITAL WAVE 25
2.3.1
VIDEO ONLINE: VIDEO PORTALS 28
2.3.1.1
General analysis
28
2.3.1.2
Conclusions 30
2.3.1.3
Google and Yahoo! comparison
31
2.3.2
GETTING INTO THE LIVING ROOM: TV ONLINE 34
2.3.2.1
General analysis
34
2.3.2.2
TELCOS, CABLE AND SATELLITE OPERATORS
40
2.3.2.3
ONLINE PLAYERS
47
2.3.2.3.1
General analysis
47
2.3.2.3.2
Google and Yahoo! comparison
52
2.3.2.3.3
Conclusions 53
2.3.2.4
MEDIA CONGLOMERATES
54
2.3.2.5
GLOBAL IPTV MARKET OVERVIEW
56
2.3.2.6
IPTV: CONCLUSIONS
60
2.3.3
MUSIC 64
2.3.3.1
General analysis
64
2.3.3.2
Conclusions 67
2.3.4
MEDIA ONLINE: GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 68
2.4
SEARCHING 69
2.4.1
G
ENERAL ANALYSIS
69
2.4.2
C
ONCLUSIONS
73
2.4.3
G
OOGLE AND
Y
AHOO
!
COMPARISON
74
2.5
INFORMATION 75
2.6
SOCIAL NETWORKS 76
2.6.1
G
ENERAL ANALYSIS
76
2.6.2
C
ONCLUSIONS
79
2.6.3
G
OOGLE AND
Y
AHOO
!
COMPARISON
81
2.7
ADVERTISING 83
2.7.1
G
ENERAL ANALYSIS
83
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
2
2.7.2
C
ONCLUSIONS
90
2.7.3
G
OOGLE AND
Y
AHOO
! C
OMPARISON
91
2.8
VOIP
93
2.8.1
G
ENERAL ANALYSIS
93
2.8.1.1
Nowadays market analysis
93
2.8.1.1.1
Fixed VoIP
94
2.8.1.1.2
Wireless VoIP: impact on MNOs
96
2.8.1.1.3
Market initiatives
99
2.8.2
MESSAGING AND VOIP CLIENTS: ONLINE OPERATORS 103
2.8.2.1
SKYPE 104
2.8.2.2
YAHOO! MESSENGER
104
2.8.2.3
MICROSOFT 105
2.8.2.4
GOOGLE TALK
105
2.8.2.5
VOIP-MESSAGING MOST POPULAR CLIENTS COMPARISON
106
2.8.3
C
ONCLUSIONS
107
2.9
GAMMING 110
2.10
E-COMMERCE 111
2.11
ONLINE PLAYERS GOING MOBILE 114
2.11.1
GOOGLE 114
2.11.2
YAHOO! 116
2.11.3
MICROSOFT
AND
APPLE 117
2.11.4
SKYPE 118
2.11.5
C
ONCLUSIONS
119
2.12
INTERNET SERVICES: COMPARATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 120
2.13
INTERNET PLAYERS: GOOGLE AND YAHOO!: GLOBAL STRATEGY
ANALYSIS
126
2.13.1
G
OOGLE
126
2.13.1.1
Business model
126
2.13.1.2
Position in value chain: SWOT analysis
128
2.13.1.3
Strategy analysis
129
2.13.2
Y
AHOO
132
2.13.2.1
Business model
132
2.13.2.2
Position in value chain: SWOT analysis
132
2.13.2.3
Strategy analysis
133
2.13.3
GOOGLE
AND
YAHOO!
FINAL
C
OMPARISON
136
3
MOBILE TELEPHONY
138
3.1
MOBILE SERVICES 138
3.1.1
COMMUNICATION 139
3.1.1.1
MESSAGING: SMS MMS IMS
139
3.1.1.1.1
SMS 140
3.1.1.1.2
MMS 140
3.1.1.1.3
MIM: MOBILE INSTANT MESSAGING
141
3.1.1.1.4
UNIFIED AND INTEGRATED MESSAGING
142
3.1.1.1.5
VIDEO MESSAGING
142
3.1.1.1.6
CONCLUSIONS 143
3.1.1.2
PUSH TO TALK
143
3.1.1.3
WIRELESS E-MAIL
144
3.1.1.4
MOBILE BLOGGING
145
3.1.1.5
WIRELESS VoIP
145
3.1.1.6
MOBILE VIDEO TELEPHONY
147
3.1.2
ENTERTAINMENT 147
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
3
3.1.2.1
MOBILE TV BROADCASTING
147
3.1.2.2
VIDEO STREAMING AND DOWNLOADING
148
3.1.2.3
MUSIC STREAMING AND DOWNLOADING
148
3.1.2.4
MOBILE GAMING
149
3.1.3
PERSONALIZATION 150
3.1.3.1
Ring tone downloads
150
3.1.4
INFORMATION AND CONTROL 150
3.1.4.1
Mobile search
150
3.1.4.2
Location based services
151
3.1.5
FINANCE AND COMMERCE 151
3.1.5.1
Mobile banking
151
3.1.5.2
Mobile payment
152
3.2
MARKET ANALYSIS 153
3.3
CONCLUSIONS 153
4
TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY DYNAMICS: POSITION IN VALUE CHAIN,
STRATEGY ANALYSIS
155
5
FIXED-MOBILE CONVERGENCE
161
5.1
C
ONVERGENCE SERVICES
:
GOING MOBILE
162
5.2
M
ARKET INITIATIVES TOWARDS CONVERGENCE
163
6
RECOMMENDATION OF ACTIONS / STRATEGIC POSITIONING FOR MOBILE
NETWORK OPERATORS
164
6.1
NETWORK IMPROVEMENT TOWARDS "
IMS
" 166
6.2
D
EVELOPMENT OF INTERNET
-
CONVERGING MOBILE PORTALS
169
6.3
CONTENT PROMOTION
171
6.4
"O
PEN GARDEN
"
STRATEGY
172
6.5
A
SSUME AND EXPLOIT ROLE OF
"
SMART PIPE
" 173
6.6
P
ERSONALIZED SERVICES
174
6.7
N
EW PRICING MODELS
:
SERVICES BUNDLES AND NEW REVENUE SOURCES
175
6.8
C
OLLABORATIONS IN ORDER TO COMPETE GLOBALLY AS A
4-
PLAYER
176
6.9
P
ROMOTE NEW GENERATION HANDSTES
177
6.10
I
NNOVATION
178
6.11
CONCLUSIONS 179
7
FINAL CONCLUSIONS
181
8
LIST OF TECHNICAL TERMS
183
9
APPENDIX 185
9.1
I
NTERNET BUSINESS MODELS
185
9.2
W
ORLDWIDE BB USERS
191
9.3
E
MAIL
:
MAIN PLAYERS COMPARISON
192
9.4
V
IDEO ONLINE WEBSITES
:
COMPARISON
193
9.5
GERMAN SOCIAL NETWORKS 195
9.6
G
OOGLE VIDEO BRANDING
196
9.7
P2P INITIATIVES 197
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
4
9.8
IPTV: M
ARKET INITIATIVES
198
9.9
IPTV:
KEY
PLAYERS
IN SPECIFIC SEGMENTS
198
9.10
EUROPEAN BROADBAND MARKET 199
9.11
ADVERTISING FORMATS 200
9.12
O
NLINE ADVERTISEMENT
:
PAYMENT CONVENTIONS
201
9.13
G
OOGLE AND YAHOO
!
ACQUISITION HISTORY
202
10
REFERENCES 203
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
5
1 GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1
INTRODUCTION
Internet. Broadband access. Mobile telephony. Fixed telephony. TV.
Google. Yahoo!. Social networks. Mobile network operators. Telecommunication
operators. Media conglomerates. Citizen media.
All these terms have always been traditionally considered independent, but nowadays the
interrelations among all of them happen more often and are becoming deeper: a new
global scenario is being defined, in which communications, entertainment and
information are converging, being provided by global conglomerates in our PCs, TVs and
mobile devices.
Nowadays technology advances will soon enable to provide users with the best internet
experience "on the go". Services hosts, access providers, vendors, media owners and
online players now realize that the barriers that traditionally have separated their markets
dilute, bringing them all in a common-global market. Internet business models have now
to converge with traditional structures and merges and acquisitions happen to reach
competitive positions in foreign markets.
The paradigm of internet will influence and change the most popular services as they are
currently known. Fixed communication providers already suffer a loose of voice revenues
in favor of the cheapest online communication. Mobile operators are facing now the same
situations and find themselves on a delicate strategic situation: with VoIP nearing a
competitive QoS, voice along doesn't seem to be for a long time enough as unique
revenue source... Even watching TV will be soon an enriched personalized experience
through the new IP end2end platforms. Will the online players be the ones successfully
accomplishing a vertical expansion of their business? How will the mobile operators
react? Which will be the paper of the network access providers? What about the media
and content? How will all that affect the customers?
In this document will be described the nowadays situation on the different markets
involved in the converging scenario, and how the respective players situate themselves
strategically. An initial global point of view will be followed by the definition of
strategies and trends of each of them independently, and the determination of the merging
points and relations among them. The effort will be focus firstly on offering
recommendations and comparisons concerning specific environments. Step by step the
basis of the competition environment in the converging market will be defined, offering a
strategic map of the involved players. The last chapter will concretize particular
propositions of action for the mobile network operators to strategically face their
strengths and weaknesses in the defined scenario.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
6
1.2
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure: Global internet users and growth rates... 10
Figure: Geographic distribution of internet users ... 10
Figure: Worldwide internet users/ 20 countries with the biggest internet population/ worldwide internet
penetration rates... 11
Figure: Broadband Penetration Growth / Motivation for subscribing BB access / Kinds of BB access
worldwide ... 12
Figure: Internet use... 13
Figure: all content going digital ... 13
Figure: web 2.0 memo-map... 14
Figure: E-Mail service growth expectation... 20
Figure: World top 4 e-mail service sites: comparison: nb of users... 20
Figure: World top 4 e-mail service sites ... 21
Figure: E-MAIL service: main players comparison according to driving factors ... 24
Figure: World top 5 video-search sites ... 28
Figure: Video Online: Google & Yahoo! comparison ... 33
Figure: New generation of services at home ... 35
Figure: Multichannel IP Video Offerings: Global subscriber Forecasts... 36
Figure: 4 IPTV potential customer segments ... 38
Figure: 4 IPTV potential customer segments ... 39
Figure: cable/satellite/telco "traditional" services offer ... 40
Figure: US Telcos /cable/satellite market potential ... 41
Figure: IPTV and 4-3 play services - telco, cable, satellite comparison... 45
Figure: IPTV market - players' strategic movements ... 46
Figure: IPTV- Yahoo! current service offer ... 50
Figure: IPTV- Google and Yahoo! strategic initiatives' comparison ... 52
Figure: IPTV players... 58
Figure: Percentage of broadband subscribers taking TV services 2006... 60
Figure: IPTV market: telcos/cable/online/media Providers' strategic position... 62
Figure: Music sales in 2005 and 2006 ... 64
Figure: Online music: worldwide market revenue previsions... 64
Figure: Music online consumption main drivers... 65
Figure: Regional differentiations /Decrease of illegal music consumption ... 66
Figure: search engines comparison ... 69
Figure: search engines trends and strategies... 70
Figure: Short term trends in search technology... 72
Figure: strategic position of search engine tech ... 72
Figure: Search technology: strategic positioning of Google and Yahoo! ... 74
Figure Most searched terms in 2006 ... 74
Figure: WEB 2.0: social-networks categories... 76
Figure: Worldwide most popular Social networks: Popularity/Participation/Members comparison... 77
Figure: Social-networks categories: popularity/activity/registered users' comparison ... 78
Figure: Social Networks strategy analysis and recommendations of actions ... 80
Figure: Social Networks: Google & Yahoo! strategy analysis ... 82
Figure: internet/broadcast and cable TV Annual ad revenue in the first 11 years ... 83
Figure: Global advertising market revenues... 84
Figure: what type of advertisement is more relevant to customers? ... 84
Figure: Advertising trends and tendencies... 85
Figure: Advertising Google services' offer ... 86
Figure: Advertising Yahoo! services ... 88
Figure: Advertising Google and Yahoo! efectiveness comparison... 91
Figure: Google and Yahoo! in the adv. market ... 92
Figure: VoIP main providers ... 94
Figure: Fixed VoIP to mobile/national/international calls comparison: users call minutes and spent ... 95
Figure: Western EU fixed VoIP market predictions (call minutes and revenues: fixed VoIP
international/national/mobile)... 95
Figure: Costs of switching to VoIP Average approximations ... 96
Figure: Cost comparison between new internet telephony providers and common carriers ... 98
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
7
Figure: Jajah use of the VoIP to seek the cost for international mobile calls ... 102
Figure: Messaging and VoIP most popular clients ... 103
Figure: comparison between VoIP-messaging clients ... 106
Figure: VoIP market predictions 2012... 107
Figure: gamming market- analysis and predictions... 110
Figure: e-commerce in West Europe, 2005 ... 111
Figure: e-commerce sites US users ... 112
Figure: Ebay global market share... 112
Figure: e-payment million of users of most popular systems ... 112
Figure: Daily Pageviews / reach on most popular websites ... 121
Figure: Most visited websites Nov'06 ... 121
Figure: USA broadband most used services ... 124
Figure: USA vs GERMAN online likes... 124
Figure: Top 10 most popular websites worldwide ... 125
Figure: Google Services: percentage of use... 126
Figure: Google services success estimation ... 127
Figure: Google general strategy direction as a result of forces analysis ... 131
Figure: Google general strategy direction as a result of last initiatives... 131
Figure: Yahoo! general strategy direction as a result of forces analysis... 135
Figure: Yahoo! general strategy direction as a result of last initiatives ... 135
Figure: Google & Yahoo!: Revenues comparison ... 136
Figure: Google & Yahoo!: Expenses comparison... 136
Figure: Yahoo! and Google strategy direction comparison... 137
Figure: Mobile applications classification... 138
Figure: Mobile applications spending 2005 vs 2006 estimations ... 139
Figure: MMS and SMS volume and revenues expectations... 140
Figure: wireless e-mail market predictions... 144
Figure: Worldwide biggest MNOs (regarding nb of subscribers)... 153
Figure: Mobile services: conclusions... 154
Figure: Telcos retail revenue growth average approximation (2004-2005) ... 155
Figure: quad-players challenge ... 156
Figure: Telcos /cable/satellite: comparing IPTV service... 157
Figure: IPTV market - players' strategic movements and recommendations for Telcos ... 160
Figure: IMS platform implementation's strategies Recommendation for MNOs ... 167
Figure: IMS implementation: strategies comparison ... 168
Figure: Recommended platform for MNO mobile-internet portal ... 169
Figure: MNO mobile-internet convergence portals: recommendation and priorities for services
implementation ... 170
Figure: Conclusions MNOs in the convergence scenario: revenues predictions... 175
Figure: Conclusions - MNOs' new sources of revenues ... 176
Figure: Conclusions Recommendations for MNOs: strategy positioning ... 179
Figure: MNO Investment priority recommendations ... 180
Figure: Conclusions convergence services providers' development phases ... 181
Figure: Internet Business Models: Resume ... 190
Figure: Video online sites comparison... 194
Figure: Germany's top social networks ... 195
Figure: Google promotes its Google Video... 196
Figure: P2P initiatives ... 197
Figure: Telcos different strategies approaching IPTV service... 198
Figure: Different partnerships strategies approaching IPTV service ... 198
Figure: Google and Yahoo! ACQUISITIONS ... 202
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
8
1.3
LIST OF TABLES
Table: data acquisition as competitive advantage ... 16
Table: recommended practices for the adaptation of applications to the web 2.0 ... 18
Table: E-mail service - SWOT analysis... 24
Table: Video Sites comparison ... 28
Table: Use of search engines for video-online ... 29
Table: Video online market - SWOT analysis... 31
Table: IPTV- telcos, cable, satellite SWOT comparison ... 44
Table: Online players and IPTV: SWOT analysis ... 53
Table: Some of the largest media conglomerates... 54
Table: Media providers: SWOT analysis ... 55
Table: IPTV - SWOT analysis ... 61
Table: Music online market - SWOT analysis ... 67
Table: Media online market - SWOT analysis... 68
Table: Search market - SWOT analysis... 73
Table: Social networks - SWOT analysis... 79
Table: Online Advertising Industry - SWOT analysis ... 90
Table: Mobile telephony costs comparisons: traditional and new VoIP providers... 97
Table: Online players mobile portals: features comparison ... 119
Table: Best offer for most demanded online services ... 123
Table: Google - SWOT analysis ... 128
Table: Yahoo! - SWOT analysis ... 133
Table: Telcos and IPTV: SWOT analysis ... 165
Table: Top 20 countries with highest nb of internet users... 191
Table: Email services comparisons of global leaders ... 192
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
9
2 INTERNET
Internet is living creature, influenced by its environment, and evolving with it.
The internet market evolves in a very rapid way, and although there are several services
with high degree of maturity and acceptance, the market is usually driven by new trends.
The advances in technology and the investments in communication networks enable the
apparition of new trend drivers, that make companies like YouTube to reach a market
value of more than 1 billion US$ in less than one year
2.1
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
The new trends on internet, called to play a decisive role on its future development, are:
Internet goes mobile
Cooperations between until now pure internet players and mobile operators are
getting more and more commons, and develop a complex net of collaborations.
The new mobile devices offer all kind of services: video, credit-card swiping,
global positioning system functions, instant access to information on internet,
mobile-TV... everything on-the-go. The most used and common internet
services, like the news, search machine and e-mail are already accessible on
mobile device. And the great success of some trends, like video sharing or the
net-communities will probably be offered to the customers on their mobile
devices as soon as the technology permits it.
Wireless access network is spreading:
WiFi
hotspots, hot zones and now entire
wireless cities: entire cities were provided with wireless Internet access,
following initiatives of different players in the telecommunication market. New
technologies make possible that the number of wireless cities increase (like
Edge
Technology
, which uses the next generation of WiFi, called
WIMAX
)
VoIP
Companies like
Google
,
Microsoft
and
Yahoo!
are getting into the Internet
phone-service game, presenting competence to the traditional Telcos by taking
advantage of the low costs of the voice transmission through IP.
Social networks
2005 was the ignition, 2006 the maturation and 2007 will be the redefinition:
weblogs
will be supplied by
vlogs
, which instead of words use videos to provide
content, accompanied by pictures ant commentaries.
Weblogs communities
,
photo-sharing networks
,
video-sharing networks
... Internet social
communities experimented the biggest growth of users in the web services, and
the main internet giants want a piece of the cake. IPTV, digital TV, video content
and VoIP (voice over IP) are expected to be the top products and services for
2007, with spending in network infrastructure for these three areas projected to
increase significantly -- by 77%, 81%, 71% and 76%, respectively
1
.
Internet itself is on trend: its growth rate does not seem to have any limit, and nowadays
it has become a fundamental part of daily life. The key drivers will be presented on the
next points:
1
http://www.tvover.net/2006/11/15/IPTV+VoIP+Investment+High+For+2007.aspx
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
10
2.1.1
INCREASING NUMBER OF USERS
The internet number of users will experiment a continuous increment. The use of printed
media is expected to decrease, and the cable and satellite services will have 1% growth.
Figure: Global internet users and growth rates
2
Asia will experiment the highest growth rates, with increasing importance in China.
Comparing the internet users' distribution in continents, we can make the next
conclusions:
Figure: Geographic distribution of internet users
3
Particularizing for more specific regions, we find that USA, Japan, China and Germany
concentrate a 52% of the total internet users' population
4
, reason because in some
chapters we will consider information regarding these countries is more relevant.
2 Founts: World Bank,CIA Factbook (2005), Jupiter Search (206),PWC (205), Yahoo! STIMATIONS (2006)
3 Founts: www.seomoz.org/blog.php?cat_id=3, Yahoo!'s Analyst Day PDF file
4
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?id=1002
, http://www.budde.com.au/reports/Category/Global-Overviews-12.html
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
11
On the next figure we compare the number of users of the 20 countries with a higher
internet population.
Figure: Worldwide internet users
5
/ 20 countries with the biggest internet population
6
/ worldwide internet
penetration rates
7
See appendix for more detailed information
5 http://www.budde.com.au/reports/Category/Global-Overviews-12.html
6 http://www.budde.com.au/reports/Category/Global-Overviews-12.html
7 Point Topic, Q4 2005;
www.bbwo.org.uk/broadband-3233
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
12
2.1.2
INCREASING BROADBAND ACCESS TO THE INTERNET
The internet users tend to subscribe
broadband access: it is expected to reach
the 413 millions subscribers by year-end
2010.
The higher speed accessing the internet
and the commodity of being always online
are the main reasons for the increasing
demand. The gradual, but consistent,
reductions in monthly service prices and
the beginnings of effective bundling
strategies that link high-speed Internet
service with video and telephony services
are also factors that improve the
broadband subscribers
8
. The increasing
availability of broadband services and new
applications that rely on high-speed
connection (online games,
communications) will increase its adoption
rate.
DSL remains the leading broadband access
technology. On a worldwide basis, it
currently accounts for 69% of all
broadband subscribers
9
.
Figure: Broadband Penetration Growth
10
/
Motivation for subscribing BB access
11
/ Kinds of
BB
access worldwide
12
8 http://www.internetworldstats.com, Dec 2006, Park Associates, 2006
9 Foutns : In-Stat Forecast,
www.instat.com/press.asp?Sku=IN0603199MBS&ID=1634
10 Founts : eMarketer 2005
11 Founts: Park Associates, 2006 : VoIP white paper
12
http://www.oecd.org
, 2006
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
13
2.1.3
HIGH RATES OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Content consumption is the fastest growing sector online:
Figure: Internet use
13
In detriment of the
off-line consumption
media, the online
consumption
worldwide
experiments big rates
of growth, and the
tendency is expected
to accelerate in the
next years.
Figure:
all content going digital
14
2.1.4
ARRIVAL OF THE NEXT INTERNET PARADIGM: WEB 2.0
Internet has changed: after the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001, a
turning-point was fixed, which lead to what nowadays O'Reilly Media defined in 2004 as
web 2.0
. On their web you can find this picture, which really good identifies what it is
understood as web 2.0:
13 Founts: OPA Internet Activity Index, Comsecore Media Matrix, Yahoo!
14 Founts :
www.audioholics.com/.../demandforHDTVIPTV.php
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
14
Figure: web 2.0 memo-map
15
Although it exists no global agreement about the exact significance and
necessity of this term, nowadays can be observed a second generation of
internet-based services, such as
social networking sites
,
wikis
,
blogs
,
communities
,
sharing networks
, new
e-commerce
and
communications
formulas
that emphasize online cooperation and sharing among users.
Several particularities that characterize the new internet:
Google becomes the new standard
delivered as a service, with customers paying, directly or
indirectly, for the use of that service. None of the trappings of the
old software industry are present. No scheduled software releases,
just continuous improvement. No licensing or sale, just usage.
De-centralized internet
Napster, Overture or Google success came from understanding the
internet as the addition of all the web sites all over the world.
Overture
and
Google
figured out how to enable ad placement on
virtually any web page.
Napster
(though shut down for legal
reasons) built its network not by building a centralized song
database, but by architecting a system in such a way that every
downloader also became a server, making therefore the network growing which
each user.
15 Founts:
http://www.oreillynet.com
, Dec 2006, Chris Anderson
Leverage customer
self-service and
algorithmic data
management to
reach out to the
entire web, to the
edges and not just
the center, to the
long tail and not
just the head
...
Network effects
from user
contributions are
the key to market
dominance in the
Web 2.0 era
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
15
The service gets better the more people use it
When every client is thought to also work as a server, the sharing of files is much
more efficient: files are broken up into fragments that can be served from
multiple locations, transparently joining the network of downloaders to provide
both bandwidth and data to other users. The more popular the file, in fact, the
faster it can be served, as there are more users providing bandwidth and
fragments of the complete file.
Building collective intelligence
Some examples:
Hyperlinking
: a user add new content on the web, and other users discover it,
evaluate it and link to it from their own sites: the internet grows through
associations and repetitions like the way the human brain works
Yahoo!
was conceived as a catalog or collection of links to the best evaluated
sites, according to the opinion of thousands of users one reason for the
successful transition from the web 1.0 to the 2.0
Google
, through its
PageRank
, makes uses of the link-structure of the web to
find which the most interesting sites are
Ebay
is just the enabler of the interactivity among his users, and the community
of buyers and sellers it was able to built gives it a great advantage among any
competitor that may offer the same services
Amazon
is just one more e-commerce site, offering the same products as many
competitors, but it found success through fomenting the user engagement: user
evaluation, comments and reviews, which allow the site to offer its clients in real
time the more popular products of each category.
Wikipedia
consist on an innovative experiment: an encyclopedia, in which the
content is created by any user, and can be edited by any other user. An
experiment on trust, which seems to work: the company belongs to the big 100
internet companies, and is expected to climb soon to the big 10.
Tagging
consists on a new style of collaborative categorization of sites using
freely chosen keywords tags. By this technique a picture of a baby can be
classified as baby and cute overlapping associations that the brain itself uses.
That principle was used successfully by sites like
del.ic.ous
and
Flickr
, one of
the reasons because they become as important as they are in
bookmarking
and
photo sharing.
Cloudmark
is one more example of collaborative work: all the users aggregate
their opinions when classificating mail as spam or not, making the filtering of
messages easier.
Traditional advertisement is no more used:
Mouth to mouth
, or
viral
advertisement
: recommendations propagating directly from one user to another
are the way the really good products in the web 2.0 become popular.
Confidence on the
peer production methods of open source
: a growing part
of the web's infrastructure (
including the Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl, PHP, or Python
code involved in most web servers
) relies on this method, in which anyone can add a
project, anyone can download and use the code, and new projects migrate from
the edges to the center as a result of users putting them to work.
The
incremental web
, or the
live web
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
16
One of the most successful new services of the web 2.0 is the
blogging
, just a
personal home page, but daily updated. The blogging grew thanks the
RSS
technology
: it allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it,
with notification every time that page changes. It is now being used to push not
just notices of new blog entries, but also all kinds of data updates, including stock
quotes, weather data, and photo availability. The
permalinks
appeared, pointing
dynamically to any individual entry, and notifying to the user any change.
That enables immediate notification of posts or articles added to any
page, and causes reactions: chat, discussions, forums... Not only can
people subscribe to each others' sites, and easily link to individual
comments on a page, but also, via a mechanism known as
trackbacks
, they can see when anyone else links to their pages, and
can respond, either with reciprocal links, or by adding comments.
We, the media
In the web 2.0 are we, the internet users, the ones who decide what is
important. Now, what formerly was just the audience, will substitute a few
people dictating where the internet is going to.
Information management is the core competency of the web 2.0 companies
Google's web crawl, Yahoo!'s directory (and web crawl), Amazon's database of
products, eBay's database of products and sellers, MapQuest's map databases,
Napster's distributed song database: the information becomes the most valuable
asset of the web 2.0 companies.
Software API's are not seen any more as a fount of incomes for the companies:
control of key data sources, especially if those data sources are expensive to
create and are able to generate demand on the net, will be the chief source of
competitive advantage.
Companies invest growing capital on management, expansion and security of
their databases; the information becomes registered intellectual property of the
companies
("Maps copyright NavTeq, TeleAtlas," or with the new satellite imagery
services, "Images copyright Digital Globe")
: software is largely open source, the core
competence lies on the information.
Data ownership and management will give the companies who faster develop
their information systems a competitive advantage. 2 different strategies can be
identified, depending on the sort of data:
Data that is difficult to create (product
identifiers)
"Intel Inside" strategy: companies
owners as single and unique source of
competitive data
Data collected from users
User aggregation strategy: company
who first reach a critical mass of users &
information, and turns this aggregate
data into a system service, will drive the
market
Table: data acquisition as competitive advantage
The most significant nowadays initiatives, towards developing wide information
systems, with specific content, are taken by the next companies:
The race is on to
own certain classes
of core data:
location,
identity,
calendaring
of
public events,
product identifiers,
namespaces
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
17
Identity information
:
PayPal
,
Amzon's 1-click
, communications systems
providers,
Google
(pretends using phone numbers as an identifier for Gmail
accounts, what may be a step towards embracing and extending the phone
system) own valuable information from its users. Also startups like
Sxip
(Sxip
Identity is the market leader in Identity 2.0, an internet-scale approach to identity and
access management that is simple, secure and open
16
)
work on web 2.0 identification
subsystem, which manage user identification information transparently.
Calendaring
:
EDBV
builds the world's largest shared calendar via a
wiki
-style
architecture of participation
Mapping
:
Digital Globe
spent $500 million to launch their own satellite to
improve on imagery services
17
Exactly as the rise of proprietary software led to the Free-software and open-
source movement, it is expected that the rise of proprietary databases will lead to
a Free-Data movement within the next decade.
Internet software is delivered as a service, not as a product
That implies several changes in the companies' business models:
Operations must be treated as core competency: Google's system
administration, networking, and load balancing techniques are perhaps
even more closely guarded secrets than their search algorithms. Google's
success at automating these processes is a key part of their cost advantage
over competitors. Dynamic systems are used, which required constant
changes and adaptation therefore the big role of languages as Perl,
Phyton, PHP, and recently Ruby in the web 2.0 companies.
Software must be maintained on a daily basis: the "Beta" logo accompany
more oft the web sites of offered services like Gmail or Windows Live
Mail. It is called the "Perpetual Beta".
Users must considered co-developers: Real time monitoring of user
behavior shows which new features are used, and how they are used, and
that lets companies improve the offered services.
Lightweight programming models
RSS
and
REST
become so popular in the nowadays web-programming because
of their simplicity and flexibility. They focus on syndicating data outwards,
supporting the
end-to-end principle
for the application development, what
means focusing on the real use of the application. Barriers are no more useful,
since open source became the best way of software improvement, and the re-use
of software a very common rentable practice. That all can be resumed in 3 main
principles:
Loosely coupled systems
Syndication instead of coordination
No barriers for code protection
Software applications for multiple devices
16 Sxip.com
17 Founts:
http://www.oreillynet.com
, Dec 2006, Chris Anderson
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
18
The
iPod/iTunes
combination is the best example of this idea: the goal is
mobile access to media; the enabler is the PC, acting as a simple cache and
control station; and internet seen as a "simply" fount of data. The application
itself, or internet alone does not represent any value, but the coordination of all in
a service.
Enrich the users' experience
Applications that learn from their users foment participation and communication,
and enables sharing all kinds of data, are call to succeed in the web 2.0
generation. Initiatives as an address book, that can be shared on and e-mail
account and a mobile phone, updated daily from both of them and easily
accessible from mobile other fixed devices, with integrated communication
services (chat, IM, VoIP), recognition of addresses or media, will lead the
application market.
In the next table we offer some recommendations on how to adapt optimally a web
product to the main new web 2.0 requirements:
Internet's content comes from millions of
users and small pages
Improve customer-self service and data-
management to reach the edges of
internet, not just the center
Growing hunger for data
Competitive advantage in own-secure-
unique sources of data
The users are key providers of new content
to the services they use
Design software architectures that
foment users' involvement in adding
value
Users are not willing to disturb themselves
for adding value to the service they use
Applications must be design to
aggregate user data as a side-effect of
the use of the application
Intellectual property protection limits re-use
and free transmission of ideas
Follow existing standards, use licenses
with few restrictions: open source
Principe
Internet applications are living beings, which
grew with the customers' feed
engagement of the users as testers, in
order to implement continually new user
requirements
web 2.0 applications work in a network of
cooperating data services
web services interfaces, content
syndication, re-use of third data services
and loosely-coupled systems: cooperate,
don't control
Mobile telephones, PDA's, TV, Video-
consoles ... More and more devices access
internet
Any internet application must be able to
integrate services across handheld
devices, PCs and internet servers
Table:
recommended
practices
for the adaptation of applications to the web 2.0
Video portals, photo-sharing networks, mail services, mapping, e-buying ... All the
internet services will be analyzed, showing the main players and the characteristics that
differentiate the most successful ones. We will obtain this way a complete picture of the
Internet nowadays, in which we will be able to compare the different tendencies and the
different strategies the companies are following.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
19
Companies like
YouTube
didn't seem to have any fount of incomes, but it was bought for
1'65 US$ billions. More and more internet companies offer their services totally for free,
from comparing prices in shops in a local area to finding the best partner among millions
of members in a dating community... In this chapter we will include a brief classification
of the different business models that can be observed nowadays on the internet industry.
A
business model
can simply be defined as the way a company makes business, by which
it generates revenue. It indicates the position of a company into the value chain, and
describe its interaction with the others members and players. These relations among the
members of a value chain can be direct and uncomplicated, drawing simple busies
models (f.i., the creation or offer of a product or service to the customer, which will be
directly charged).
But exist also more complicated models, where a lot of different parts interfere in the
creation of the service or product, and the allocation of the origin of the incomes of each
part becomes very complicated (in a television channel we can find since content
creators, advertisers, distributors and the final clients: how does each part become its
revenues
is
not
so
easy
to
clarify).
Commerce realized thorough internet will give rise to new kinds of business models,
different from the classic ones, because of the new environment. But on the other hand,
the web is also likely to reinvent tried-and-true models, bringing into the new "web
format" already tested and successful ideas. The auctions are an example: they have been
used widely during centuries to set the prices and sell all kind of goods; the web just
copied the idea, and empowered it by the creation of worldwide communication networks
and
communities
of
users.
Internet business models have been classified and organized in many different ways, and
nowadays there is no definitive worldwide accepted classification, due to the influencing
factors considered and the continues changes and evolution of the internet environment.
Here we present one classification, proposed by
DigitalEnterprise.org
, which resumes
the basic categories of business models observable on the web, as an attempt to present a
comprehensive and argumentative study of them.
The way each company implements these models may differ according to its particular
strategy, being very common the combination of several models, which conform very
specific strategies. Indeed, the business model of a company is considered as intellectual
property, and is even protected with patents. Some patents relative to e-commerce have
already been granted, but it is not easy to distinguish what is really innovative as business
model in the internet, what makes that some of the more remarkable patents are being
discussed
in
the
courts.
Consult the table in appendix for more information about the models considered in this study for the
classification of the mentioned companies, and its main characteristics.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
20
2.2
E-MAIL
2.2.1
GENERAL ANALYSIS
With almost 500 millions users
Worldwide
18
, the e-mail is one of
the most used online services, and
nowadays a must in the social and
professional communication. The
expectations indicate that the
service's use will increase in the
next years, and all experts coincide
on that it will be one of the key
services in order to gain users.
Figure: E-Mail service growth expectation
The tendency in the e-mail services points to the web 2.0: the main players test the
version of their e-mail services, in order to provide their users with a real Web 2.0
experience in all meanings. The specific development directions will be shown on the
next sub-chapter, providing examples.
In the next figure we compare the main e-mail service players in a worldwide
comparison:
Figure: World top 4 e-mail service sites: comparison: nb of users
19
Yahoo! is the best positioned e-mail providers on a users-base. But the better adoption of
the web 2.0 new requirements may cut the difference with the other providers: the
internet big three are nowadays testing their web 2.0 mail services, and offer to their
users beta versions. On the next lines we will offer a short description of the main factors
to consider when comparing and evaluating the new e-mail services:
INTERFACE
18 Founts: emarketer, July 2006
19 Founts:
http://www.techcrunch.com,
2006/11/09
51
250
228
50
GMAIL
YAHOO MAIL
MSN
AOL MAIL
Com paration (M i l l i ons of user s) of the bigge s t 3 global e -m ail s e r vice s
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
21
The use of
Ajax Technologies
enables the independent load of messages
separately, and the user won't have to wait for the reload of the complete site
when clicking on an item.
Tabbed messaging
enables the enhancement in the
management of messages, enabling the user to keep track on multiple messages
at once.
Yahoo
and
MSN
adopt an Outlook-style interface, trying to attract all the user
of desktop e-mail clients. A dual-pane layout presents the messages, more text is
presented on the screen, and the user can access a menu by a right-mouse-click.
In the other hand,
Google
bets for an easier interface, with a lot of white space
and not so straight lines, and demands less dragging and dropping.
Figure: World top 4 e-mail service sites
20
SPEED
Google
is the client who a better work did on this matter, far ahead from his
competitors: while by Gmail messages are open instantly, several irregular delays
occur by MSN, and especially by Yahoo, although the improvement comparing
with the previous versions is also notable.
ADS
Only the paid version of
Yahoo! Mail
is totally ads free
Yahoo
and
Windows Live Mail
display animated ads, trying to catch the
attention of the users, but distracting him.
Gmail
displays discreetly text ads, based on the text of the message the user is
reading personalized advertising, but on the other hand: what about the
confidentiality of the privates e-mail content?
CONTENT ORGANIZATING
Yahoo
and
Windows Live Mail
allow the user to drag and drop messages into
folders, which are not collapsible (no possibility of moving folders into other
folders or creating subfolders).
20 Founts:
http://www.techcrunch.com,
2006/11/09
Yahoo Mail
used the former
Oddpost
client platform, and adapt it to a Outlook
layout style.
It was the first to include
drag-and-drop
,
and arranges messages in tabs to help
you multitask.
Google mail
presents as much
information as its competitors, but wins in
the easiness of management
The new MSN,
Windows Live Mail
,
presents a labeled banner with warning
information about the security
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
22
Figure: RSS feeds management in
Yahoo! e-mail
Gmail
enables a labeled organization of content:
tagging
the mails means, that
the user can add a label to each mail, which easies the localization of every item.
His filtering option are also more developed as by his competitors, allowing the
user to automatically delete, forward or archive messages, or even attaching them
a label for its organization.
SECURITY
Although all of them made improvements in this matter,
Windows Live Mail
found the best solution for the security management: it displays a banner on top
of every message to inform you a suspicious senders or contents, allowing you to
accept or reject in, and even warns you of potential
phishing scams
based on an
analysis of the e-mail's sender address.
SERVICES INTEGRATION
In the
Web 2.0
mail services integration will
play a very significant role. Even though the
Yahoo!
and
Microsoft
make more efforts
towards the integration of services in their
pages, is
Gmail
the most integrated e-mail
service: the
Google Talk beta IM
client
allows the user to chat in a
Gmail
page and to
view transcripts of sessions there. Its language
capabilities enable automatic flagging of
potential appointments found on the mails for
scheduling on the
Google Calendar beta
, and
displaying a
Google Maps
link when it
recognizes an address in the content of an e-mail.
In the organization of
RSS feeds
is
Yahoo
the one getting the best results: it
organize the news feed into folders in the inbox, classifying it according to
diverse criteria, and enable the ser to collapse or expand the RSS folder, and even
to view a summary of the content without having to open a new navigator
window.
Gmail
displays the content of the RSS feeds one by one, opening a new window
to view the content. But it enables search by topic to add new feeds, unlike
Yahoo!
.
Windows Live Mail
lacks of any RSS reader
FORMATTING
All three rivals let the user format text and select from multiple font styles when
composing a message, but
Gmail
is the only one who doesn't allow add cute
emoticons or change backgrounds, but on the other hand,
Gmail
is the only one
in moment with spelling checker that works in
Firefox
and
Mozilla
browsers.
Consult the comparison
table in the appendix
to view a resume of the diverse factors that we use to
compare the most important e-mail services.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
23
2.2.2
CONCLUSIONS
From a technology point of view, among the big-internet players, Google is better
prepared for the next mail generation, because of 3 main reasons:
Internal organization: automated labeled options
Service integration: maps, calendar and chat
Personalized advertisement: looking forward to informing, instead of
disturbing
Æ
better monetization of the service
But the main players are moving in the same technological direction as Google, what
means that in the short-medium term its technological better implementation will not
mean a competitive advantage.
Yahoo! has a much higher customer base, in a service in which the users are not willing
to change to a competitor (changing the e-mail address would be a disturbing task, and
the commodity of knowing a service used daily), and that gives Yahoo several
advantages:
Bigger customer's base & customers' fidelity
Æ
more information
Æ
personalizing e-mail
Æ
creating community
Bigger variety of services & experience in community creation
Æ
bigger
opportunities for creating community
The strategy of the companies seems to point to the implementation of a many web 2.0
characteristics as possible, and integrate as many services as possible. E-mail is a key
service in any internet player, and therefore the own development is preferred to growth
throw direct acquisition. The investments of the companies are more directed in 2
directions:
Improvement of services: investment in web 2.0 technology
implementation, and services implementation
Customer base enlargement: acquisition of other companies like social-
networks, which besides provide community creation opportunities
In the text table we will try to underline the most influencing for e-mail service:
E-MAIL SERVICES
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
ÆMost demanded "traditional" internet
service, considered: a "must" for any
internet portal
ÆDomination of 3-big players as most
used worldwide e-mail providers
OPORTUNITIES RISKS
ÆNew web 2.0 paradigm
ÆIntegration with other services: Social
networks, search engine, news, maps,
events management...
ÆPartnership with specialized e-mail
ÆOwn development:
Not reaching services level offered
for main providers
Bad image
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
24
providers
ÆMobile portals
ÆCollaboration: Dependency on
partners
Table: E-mail service - SWOT analysis
2.2.3
GOOGLE AND YAHOO! COMPARISON
On the next figure we tray to present the strategic position of both companies regarding
the 2 factors described as the most important to care about when evaluating the e-mail
service.
Figure: E-MAIL service: main players comparison according to driving factors
The size of the circles indicate the number of users
The arrows points from the short-past position of the company's strategy to the direction of future development
With discontinuous lines we show the limits of the development and accomplishment of the companies in each comparison factor
In resume: Yahoo! is the mail provider number 1 worldwide, near followed by MSN.
Users nowadays are no willing to change their mail because of a more beautiful interface,
and that enforces Yahoo! market share, at least in the near future: its capability to adapt
its service to the new generation mail requirements, the web 2.0 mail, will determine if
the difference with Google, which is making great investment in innovating his e-mail
service, will increase or decrease. The service integration and intern message operability
will play an important role. And in these matters Google is making more advances.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
25
2.3
MEDIA ONLINE: THE SECOND DIGITAL WAVE
We will start this chapter with a brief resume of the most important factor to consider in
the media online market, which will be deeper analyzed on ahead, together with the
tendencies.
A. STRENGTHS
Online-media consumption is doubling every year:
Online music, movies and games will comprise by 2008 an $11 billions industry.
In less than three years, online video spending has grown from virtually nothing
to almost $500 million. According to eMarketer estimates this figure will more
than double over the next three years
21
.
With the growing penetration of broadband internet access in worldwide
households, and the disposition of higher bandwidths, the consumption of online-
content is increasing day by day.
Massive diversification of media: citizen media
Internet users are creating new content:
blogs
,
wikis
,
social networks
and
interchange sites
empower the so called
citizen journalism
or
citizen media
,
transforming the traditional passive users into active media creators. Citizen
media gradually take audiences out of the traditional media and traditional media
are slowly trying to adapt by becoming more "participative", making their users
create information, for example, by sending their own news.
More and more artists use the internet as a way of advertisement, and not only for
new incomers, but also for celebrities. New tools and online services make it
easy for any internet user to capture, edit, remix and change any video content.
The creation of original content has also experimented a big growth, and is the
main reason of the expansion of sites like YouTube. Video applications are also
growing with its better availability: personal entertainment, education/training,
teleworking, and videoconference are only some examples.
Technology improvement:
towards bringing new media services into the living room:
IPTV
Internet protocol television
(IPTV) uses IP as the transport platform to send
video signals to the television via high-speed Internet connections such as fiber-
to-the-X connections (FTTx) and/or next-generation digital subscriber lines
(xDSL). With this technology, consumers will be in complete control of what,
when, and where they watch television programming.
online video standard format: Flash video format
22
Adobe-Macromedia
Flash technology
makes it possible to embed video both
within web sites as well as within custom applications such as RSS readers and
aggregators as well as within customizable widgets of any kind as well as within
traditional desktop applications. It is recognized as the most powerful enabler for
the adoption and distribution of video online.
Improve exchange of large files:
P2P
technology
21 Founts: http://www.akamai.com/dl/brochures/akamai_media_delivery_sb.pdf
22 Founts:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_video/online_video_future_predictions
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
26
Originally more used for the interchange of (media mostly) files among users
with shared interested, the P2P (Peer to Peer) networks rely on the broadband
capacity of the integrants of the P2P network, and not on the servers. These
technology is been nowadays improved, been used even for
VoIP
service
See particularities in
appendix-P2P
B. WEAKNESSES
Main threats: copyright, rights management and campaign against piracy
Specifically, the media business needs support for Digital Rights Management,
which is the key enabler for online media distributed services allowing a flexible
use by consumers; it also needs more cooperation from
ISPs
in protecting music
from piracy on their networks.
Dependency on band disposition
The new generation of media-consumption services requires broadband access,
in order to provide the customer with the content and QoS expected. If this
broadband access is not available, the service can not be offered. The main
players are conscious of that, and already make great investments in distribution
and access networks.
Regional media consumption preferences
The success of regional content represents a weakness for the traditional media-
broadcaster players, who offer content in a global or country basis. The
exploitation of niche-media consumption markets in specific regions is also a
business opportunity that the technology will enable in medium term: regional
specification of content
C. RISKS
Domination of big players:
The big online players, media conglomerates and users' access providers will
compete fiercely for acquiring a good position in the very profitable media
distribution market: the consolidation of the market will end with a small number
of dominating companies, what means that the bigger part of the competitors will
be thrown out of the market.
These big players are:
Online big three:
Yahoo!, Google
and
Microsoft
Telcos:
France Telecom
,
Telefonica
...
Content conglomerates
The seven current media conglomerates are
Disney, CBS, Time Warner,
News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, Viacom
and
General Electric
. These
companies together own more than 90% of the media market
23
.
Monetization models not probed yet
With the inclusion of video as delivered service, the consumption of broadband
will increase, and the billing of the companies providing it will have to consider
it: the one-bill approach may not be sustainable in a medium term, and other
models will be necessary. Billing for downloaded-viewed files, band occupied,
23 Founts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Corporation
, Jan 2007
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
27
time, or for each service separately, and very specially advertisement, will be
some tendencies.
D. OPORTUNITIES
Reach specifically targeted audiences: service personalization
Expand its advertising channels: Ads embedded in videos, music files, games,
banners, mobile phones...
Content distribution monetization
Advertisement is the main source of incomes for the offer of free content: Google
may be the first one developing a solid monetization, in which videos protected
by copyright will be financed through advertisement.
Payment per download is another alternative: Movie studios are quickly
embracing the pay download market as a viable alternative to high-cost DVD and
indirect retail-based distribution models.
The cross-selling opportunities
Specially exist for the marketers, because the users who spend money on media
online usually purchase different kinds of media.
Huge market exploitation
Music is the most consumed digital media; the demand of video online increase
non-stop, and TV online is called to be the next application killer: media
consumption in all it forms and possibilities represent a very big market
opportunity
E. TENDENCIES / CONSIDERATIONS
New consumption model: from broadcasting to a
demand system
The media consumption model is changing, passing from a system in which the
broadcaster decides what to offer, to a demand system, in which the users are the
ones who decide what, where and when to view. We could call it the "second
digital wave", characterized with an increasing degree of customer participation
and interaction.
Purchase and co-operations between pure-content and online partners
will be more and more frequent, when content providers realize of the necessity
of improving the availability of their offer: content offer of traditional players
(TV channels), will go online, pulled by the growing demand, and their contents
will have to be optimized for the search engines and on-site search functions, as
well as for both general terms of search (such as artist and actor names, movie
and TV show titles and music labels) and specific titles (of songs, movies, shows,
etc.), in order to in order to capture the broadest possible audience. The online-
content aggregators (
AOL, Google, Yahoo, MSN,
and
Apple
) will also look
for a better position in the media market, entering in the content providers'
market.
Music is the most popular type of media consumed on the web, but Video follows it with
high rates of growth. News Clips, radio broadcasts, podcasts and video clips (humorous
outtakes, home video and other short-form video found on sites such as
YouTube
or
Google Video
), online-TV contribute also to the growth of media online consumed. In
order to study the market situation and the main players on each sector, we will
differentiate these main 3 types of media, and study them separately.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
28
2.3.1
VIDEO ONLINE: VIDEO PORTALS
2.3.1.1 General analysis
In 2006 online video passed from being something you just log on and watch to become
something you share. In fact, the number of video sharing sites that have come online in
the past indicates that the video online market is something to take in consideration, and
should not be confined to just insignificant entertainment. Hundreds of thousands of
consumers sharing video online,
and that is originating a deep
impact on the consumed band
and consequently on the
broadband providers revenues.
The market share of the main
players is resumed on the next
picture:
Figure: World top 5 video-search
sites
24
After the acquisition of
YouTube
,
Google
owns almost 50% of the worldwide video-
online markets, what gives it an advantageous position in this important market. On the
next table we resume the most popular video-online sites:
Technical Ranking
WORLDWIDE
USA
UK
Video Ranking
Better positions in global
Ranking
Global
Ranking
Video Ranking
Video Ranking
Video Ranking
global
Ranking
1
Blip.tv
YouTube
Yahoo Video
1
YouTube
YouTube
YouTube
10
2
VideoEgg
MySpace
MSN Video Search
2
MySpace
Google Video
MySpace
16
3
Dailymotion
Yahoo Video
Google Video
3
Yahoo Video
MySpace
MyVideo
27
4
YouTube
MSN Video Search
MySpace
5
MSN Video Search
Google Video UK
Google Video
100
5
Veoh
Google Video
YouTube
7
Google Video
Metacafe
Clipfish
100
6
Google Video
Photobucket
Photobucket
70
AOL
Yahoo Video
Sevenload
100
7
Grouper
Metacafe
Metacafe
150
iFilm
Adicting Clips
8
Jumpcut
iFilm
iFilm
683
Metacafe
AOL
9
AOL
Putfile
Putfile
984
vMix
Break.com
10
Eyespot
Bolt
Bolt
1089
Dailymotion
singingfish
WORLDWIDE
GERMANY
Popularity Ranking
Table: Video Sites comparison
25
From this table we can observe several particularities:
YouTube
,
Yahoo!
,
MySpace
and
Google
dominate the worldwide market
24 Founts: Hitwise.com, Aug 2006
25 Founts: Nielsen//NetRatings U.S. Home and Work Audience, July 2006, Hitwise.com, Aug 2006;LightReading, Aug 2006
Top 5 video-search websites: marketsahre worldwide
MySpace
24%
MSN
9%
Google
7%
Others
8%
YouTube
42%
Yahoo
10%
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
29
Nevertheless, there are several sites, concentrated in the particularities of a more
regional demand, with a big market share in their home-market
Like the German
MyVideo
, considered as the German YouTube, one of the most
used website in German language
Video searching
Search services all over the world experiment a bigger click-through to
video/movies than for the rest of content one more evidence of the current
video-trend.
The most popular web sites become the most search-petitions for videos.
Remarkable is the example of
AOL:
In Sept 06 it accounted for 11% of all click-
throughs to video/movie sites but only 7.9% of all Internet click-throughs:
Table: Use of
search engines
for video-
online
26
*Minimum
requirement =
1.5% share of
video/movie
click-throughs
Market trends:
Featuring web 2.0 paradigm: from simply video streaming to include:
- Chat
- Sharing/community tools
- Interactive/personalized advertising
Market movements:
Big players acquiring video distribution/creation companies, with no
revenue model or developing own video services:
-
Microsoft
launched
Soapflox
, focus on distributing video in an
integrated way with its bundle of services
-
News Corp
, owner of
MySpace
social network, built and promoted
MySpace video
-
Sony
bought online video sharing site
Grouper
in August'06 for
just $65 million.
-
Viacom
bought
iFilm
in 2005 and
Atom Entertainment
in August
($250 million).
-
AOL
, a unit of
Time Warner
, bought
Truveo
($50 million) and
online video advertising company
Lightningcast
.
Going mobile
-
YouTube
will deal with
Verizon Wireless
in the US, to create a
service that will allow users to upload videos direct into their
mobile devices. The videos will also be reachable through an on-
demand TV channel.
26 Founts: Nielsen//NetRatings UK MegaView Search, home data only, Sept 06
Rank
Search Engine*
Share of click-
throughs to
video/movies
Share of click-
throughs to
entire Internet
'Likelihood'
rating for
video/movies
1
AOL
11.0%
7.9%
39%
2
Yahoo!
11.6%
10.4%
12%
3
Google
70.7%
68.6%
3%
4
Orange
2.3%
2.3%
-1%
5
Ask.com
1.9%
3.4%
-44%
6
MSN
1.5%
4.2%
-64%
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
30
-
MySpace
is also looking for a partner to go wireless in Europe
Traditional distributors jump into internet through collaborations or by
launching new sites
-
ProSiebenSat1 Media
bought a 30% stake in
MyVideo
in
September 2006, a German Video Portal with more than 4.5
millions daily visits
27
This way it becomes the first German broadcasting group who decides to meet
the challenge of "internet", that offer the advertisers a new channel to reach the
masses. The deal underlines the interest of traditional media groups globally to
secure a share of internet advertising, which growth is causing traditional media
distributors' revenues to decrease. Besides, MyVideo means a new very popular
source of content, the so called citizen videos: having reached such an acceptance
on the web, Sat1 is bringing now that content to the TV (through several
programs that show the top internet-ranking videos), building the bridge TV-
Internet.
Launched at the end of April-2006, ProSieben said MyVideo's German website
registers about 2 millions downloads every day. MyVideo also runs less
frequented sites for Poland, France and Spain.
-
RTL Television
, ProSieben's German rival and a part of media
giant
Bertelsmann
, last month launched the site
Clipfish.de
, which
boasts about one sixth the number of films of MyVideo's 60,000
28
.
-
TV Genius
launched
searchbbcvideo.com
, a new website to
search and list all videos currently held online by the
BBC
New business opportunity
There is a tendency to import successful online ideas from the USA to regional
markets, adapt them and than sell them to big players, who want to come into this
market. The
Samwer Brothers
have already experience in this practice in
Germany: they sold the auction house
Alando.de
to
E-Bay
several years ago,
and in 2004 they sold
Jamba
to the US
VeriSign
.
For more details, to get a wider view into the nowadays video-online offer, comparing the websites in terms
of used technology and users' evaluation, consult the appendix:
Video Portals Comparison
.
2.3.1.2 Conclusions
In the text table we will try to underline the most influencing for Video Portals:
VIDEO PORTALS
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
ÆIncreasing content consumption
ÆBig and easy monetization
possibilities, direct and indirect
(advertisement)
ÆHigh market growth expectance:
x user readiness
ÆLegal situation: copyright and content
property issues
ÆHigh bandwidth requirement for
expected QoS:
x dependency on customers' access
line
27 Founts:
http://www.lightreading.com
, OMMA Magazine Archives, Dec 2006
28 Founts:
http://www.ft.com
, Sept'06
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
31
x ready technology
x broadband extension
ÆHigh rates of customer's content
creation: citizen media
x dependency on customers'
visualization devices
ÆNo/low current monetization
ÆCompetition: big fishes taking
positions on the market
OPORTUNITIES RISKS
ÆBusiness opportunities:
x content creation: Citizen media
exploitation
x content distribution (mobile and
fixed): broadband access,
visualization devices
x tools for content management:
search, share, catalog...
x pay-per-view business
ÆAdvertising supported extra services
(music management, information,
news...)
ÆSocial networks as distribution
channel
ÆDomination of big players:
x Internet portals in media
searching /management
x Concentration of media
ownership
ÆVideo as piece of a bundle service for
3-4 players
ÆInefficient Monetization models
Table: Video online market - SWOT analysis
As key drivers for the Video-online business, we will distinguish:
Adoption of web 2.0 features
Content: traditional and citizen media
Positioning in new scenarios: going mobile / going into the living room (
IPTV
)
2.3.1.3 Google and Yahoo! comparison
A.
GOOGLE
In the first week of April´06,
Google
had in his main searching site a new link:
Google
VIDEO
. That means a great effort in advertising, when we consider the millions of
people who visit daily the page, all over the world.
The success of Google's Video branding strategy can be appreciated on the
appendix figure
.
Nowadays the link remain there, but only in the .com site: the other national versions
have instead a link to Google Groups, or just one link fewer. That shows that the
company may not be ready to offer a competitive product in other languages.
Google did not make any big investment in order to gain video market share, until the
acquisition of
YouTube
in Oct-2006 for 1,65 US$ billions: that pointed an inflexion point
on its strategy:
Facts:
YouTube does not provide any revenues (yet)
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
32
the technology or the business are not 1,65 US$ billions wert
but it has established 31 millions audience
Step into web 2.0:
Google adopted the style of
YouTube
to their own Video Site, adding Ratings,
Tagging, blogging and Comments: nowadays we could say that
Google Video
represents therefore its biggest step into the web 2.0, giving a preview of how
they will develop the sharing and new characteristics. It is at the same time a test
for social searching, in order to develop the whole offer of services according to
the new web 2.0 user expectations.
Strategy positioning in video advertising
Since several months after the purchase it is still running totally independently,
the strategy that Google follows is not so evident directed to gain competence as
video-social-network, and points more to improve and expand its core business,
advertisements, to new customers.
Let us analyze the 2 possible options:
-
Integrate YouTube into Google
Î risk of losing one of the more trendy
brands on the Internet.
-
Leave YouTube independent
Î risk diluting Google's own brand (Google
Video).
The poor market share of Google Video (see "World top 5 video-search sites" in
the
List of figures
) may force it to integrate both portals, although the initial
intentions show a try to improve separately their own Video Service.
YouTube is also a god start for jumping into the
iTV
business (see
Main Players
comparison - Media Online
), what also interests Google.
B.
YAHOO!
Video distribution was a part of Yahoo's strategy since the beginnings of the company:
already in 1999 it acquired
Broadcast.com
, but failed in getting the expected audience.
Finance Vision
and
Yahoo! Platinium
(2003) were also unsuccessful initiatives in the
distribution of media content, due mainly to the customer's lack of appropriate access
network. But now this access exists, and Yahoo's experience brought it to the first
positions in the market.
The directions that Yahoo! could take in the video market are:
Citizen media
Content disposition
The company has very deep relations with some of the biggest media
conglomerates, and has the biggest rates of this "copy right" content, through
collaborations with most of the biggest media conglomerates.
improve visual quality, regardless of bandwidth expense
29
29 Founts : Yahoo ! Annual Report 2005
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
33
C. Comparison: conclusions
Whereas Google seems to be better positioned in matters of video advertising, Yahoo!
seems to center its activity as entertainment provider. We offer a graphical view of these
conclusions:
Figure: Video Online: Google Yahoo! comparison
Considering the 3 main key drivers defined for this market on the conclusions, Yahoo!
may be a better content provider, with a higher customers' base, a longer partnerships
experience with top media conglomerates, and new initiatives in favor of the citizen
media (like the partnership with
Reuters
). Google shortened this distance after the
purchase in October 2006 of YouTube, but still does not have such a big offer.
If we consider now the nearness to the web 2.0 paradigm, Google may have made a step
forward with the acquisition of YouTube, but Yahoo! also improves its current interface.
Both of them develop initiatives to enter new markets (IPTV and mobile video), and here
is Yahoo! the one making the faster advances (
Meedio
,
Akimbo
), while Google shows
interest, but does not make direct investment at the moment.
See the chapter IPTV online players for more information
Yahoo! defines its strategy as entertainment provider: therefore the delivery of video is a
key driver of its future actions, and that is the reasons of the last efforts on improving its
advertisement system (purchases of
RightMedia
,
AdInteract
), market where Google
dominates.
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
34
2.3.2
GETTING INTO THE LIVING ROOM: TV ONLINE
2.3.2.1 General analysis
A. Introduction
TV online is coming. There is a great effort in making TV independent of the device on
which the user may access to it. The protocol IPTV will be the distribution standard,
enabling the offer of a big variety of services, among which TV is only one.
Internet protocol television
(
IPTV
) uses IP (Internet Protocol) as the transport platform
to send video signals to the television via high-speed Internet connections (such as fiber-
to-the-X connections: FTTx: Fiber To The Home, Fiber To The Curb, and/or next-
generation digital subscriber lines, xDSL). With this technology, consumers will be in
complete control of what, when, and where they watch television. Moreover, given the
versatility of the IP network, consumers will have the opportunity to use many more
services. We will mention the most extended nowadays
30
:
Personal TV- from one-way programming to an interaction with users
IPTV only delivers those channels which are being viewed by the subscriber and
has the potential to offer practically an 'unlimited' number of channels. The user
will get the freedom to control what and when they want to watch.
Cable and satellite broadcasters generally send all television signals at one time
and then the consumer chooses which signal to show on the television set. This
means that lots of bandwidth is used unnecessarily. IPTV uses
switched IP
technology
, by which all the TV data is held in a center location and only the
channel that the consumer at home chooses is sent. This means much more
bandwidth for either better quality broadcasts or the ability to add much more
data choices due to the fact that bandwidth is no longer such a big issue.
Video on Demand (VoD)
After years of doubting of this service will ever have the expected demand, now
it seems to become a competitive differentiator and one of the key for success in
the market at home. It may attract the "Blockbuster" customers, by providing the
same content, but adding value to the offer
Anywhere Television Service
Internet TV Services Providers (ITVSP) will provide personalized TV,
recognizing the IP direction of the device anywhere it may be connected
Global Television Channels
Video service outside the local, often regulated, areas.
EPG: Electronic Program Guide
It consists on a screen guide that enables a broadcast television user to navigate,
select, and find content by time, title, channel, genre, etc, by use of their remote
control, a keyboard or even a phone keypad.
Personal Media Channels (PMC)
30 Founts:
http://www.dslforum.org/latestnews/IPTVASurvivalStrategyorRevenueGeneratorforTelcos.pdf
Founts:
http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/iptv/topic04.html
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
35
An IP television customer can be assigned a personal television channel. Then,
the user can upload media to their personal media channels and can thus allow
friends and family to access their pictures and videos, also via their IP
televisions.
Addressable Advertising
The IP television has a defined profile that is used to personalize the
advertisement, what may suppose 10 to 100 times bigger revenue.
Multicast
By using the IP multicast feature in providing an IPTV service, a service provider
can conserve bandwidth in their core and access networks. When more than one
user is viewing the same channel in a home network, the service provider may
only deliver a single video stream. But, at the same time, the home network
technology must be competent to distribute this towards multiple users on the
home network
Privacy and Security
The user data on the home network is protected and no outsiders or intruders
have the power to intercept.
Web-like interface format
Looking for the interactivity with the user, the TV will adopt user-friendly
interface.
The new offer of service can be resumed on the next figure:
Figure: New generation of services at home
31
B. Expectations
Big market Potential
WORLDWIDE:
global market for IPTV video equipment and services will reach the US$7,2
billion in 2008; there will be an estimated 53 million IPTV subscribers by 2009
31 Foutns :
www.juniper.net/.../jnews_article_060601.html
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
36
EU:
After a slow ramp-up, Forrester predicts one in four European xDSL/fiber
broadband subscribers will have IPTV within 10 years, with penetration ranging
from 13% in the UK to 33% in France; 74% of European households will have
digital TV by 2009
US:
The U.S will be a more difficult market for IPTV, due to high existing pay-TV
penetration, and stiff price and service competition that is likely to come from the
entrenched operators in the cable and satellite sectors. The Americas and Western
Europe are expected to be the biggest markets in terms of revenue per user basis.
Asia Pacific:
This region
will count
with 2 of each
3 subscribers
by the
beginning of
2007. China
will be the
future IPTV
biggest
consumer due
to rapid
urbanization,
fast growing
economy and
expanding
middle class
32
Figure: Multichannel IP Video
Offerings: Global subscriber
Forecasts
33
Barriers:
Customer
demand: Cable and satellite dominate the video entertainment market, and
for the IPTV players it will be difficult to deliver the current most viewed
content, due to the established contracts and relations with cable and
satellite operators
Consumer familiarity with IPTV service is very low although youth today
are much more aware of it when compared with people belonging to other
age groups. The service's acquisition cost will be the most significant
factor across all countries and age groups
Bandwidth limitations will prevent it from being the most used media
distribution method
Regional dependency - customs, regulatory conditions
34
32 Founts: Forrester Research
33 Founts: Parks Associates Whitepaper, 2006
34 Founts:
http://www.tvover.net/2006/10/27/Global+IPTV+Market+Analysis+20062010.aspx
Founts :
http://www.iptvarticles.com/iptvmagazine_2005_10_IPTV_billing.htm
Foutns :
www.audioholics.com/.../demandforHDTVIPTV.php
Foutns : Multimedia Research Group, MRG Inc, Jan 2006
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
37
Challenges:
Cost: ads supported service: Advertising is going to be the key for the
development of TV Online services. The user will have to pay only for
very special content.
Measurement: how to track consumption of media in multiple device, on-
the-go and at home. Sales figures, registrations and page views will be
leading indicators.
Getting web based content on the TV will create new business
opportunities for content providers
Experts see creation of new content one of the areas that will experiment the
biggest growth and that will generate biggest business opportunities with the
possibilities that IPTV offers: from pizza sellers on the neighborhood to global
marketing campaigns: a new world of possibilities for video content production
Which are the present indicators of such a tendency?
Increasing consumption of digital content, and preference of the internet users for
consuming media on TV:
While 25% of Internet users are interested in watching downloaded TV shows
and movies on their PCs, 38% (50% more) are interested in watching that video
on their TVs. Among the 18-34 year olds the numbers are even more evident:
68% showed interest in watching the media on the TV, compared with a 45%
who prefer the PC
35
Consumers are dissatisfied with their current TV experience: more than 50% of
consumers miss more than one program per week, while 85% frequently find
there is nothing on TV they want to watch
36
Broadband expansion
It is an important indicator, due to the necessity of a wide band connection to the
user in order to provide the required services with the necessary QoS (see
increasing broadband access
)
Technology improvements:
MPEG-4
enables a higher compression and better quality for the transmission of
video format, what means that a lower bandwidth is necessary to deliver HD
services.
But not only are the access and distribution networks being improved: the
disposition on the market of new devices are changing customer attitudes, who
demand personalized services: see the chosen content on any device anywhere at
any moment.
At the customer side, there are 2 main tendencies providing him with the IPTV
receiver devices:
PC-TV
: companies offering programming to a PC are viewed as more
consumer-friendly systems, but less robust systems
STB
(Set Top Boxes): STB companies, and cable operators, posses better and
more content, but are less innovative
Increasing IPTV services offer:
Technology state of the art enables broadband providers to offer IPTV services in
only 2 years. It is expected a first phase with many competitors, what will benefit
the customer, but in the long term only a few big conglomerates will survive.
Founts :
www.hometoys.com/.../dvdinsider58.htm
35 Founts: research from Points North Group and Horowitz Associates - http://www.itworld.com 28/03/2006
36 Founts:
telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_succeed_iptv/
José Manuel García Sánchez
TFH BERLIN: ITTM - Master Thesis (Feb. 2007)
38
They all point to a same direction: internet will soon enter the living room and become
one more possibility of entertainment on the TV sets.
C. Key drivers
The offer of multi-services in a way that reflects consumers' personal choices will
represent the key to win customer base and increase ARPU. We identify 3 main key
drivers, which will be analyzed with more detail for every player
KD1: High Speed distribution and access networks
HDTV is the expected quality for the user: that is what cable and satellite
operators offer, and currently is the main cause preventing telcos to win IPTV
customers. Telcos networks and technology are not yet able to offer HDTV, and
that focus the strategy of all players.
KD2: Providing a better customer experience
IPTV represents the opportunity of offering services that will cause a revolution
in the global content consumption, but the offer is still far away from exploiting
all its possibilities. The players first reaching this new paradigm of services may
win a big market share.
KD3: Competitive pricing
The 4-play nature of telcos' service gives them the possibility to follow the "one
bill" strategy, what may attract customers, but in a medium-long term, with cable
and satellite also becoming 4-players, that strategy may drive to too low
revenues: billing for bandwidth, time, content or services are possibilities that the
players may consider
D. Consumers
As IPTV means a totally different service from the typical content distribution, some
studies have been made in order to measure the customers' acceptance: There can be
identified 4 kinds of customers with different expectations towards the IPTV, 4 segments
that the competitors
have to consider to
focus their offer:
Figure: 4 IPTV potential
customer segments
37
37 Founts: Park associates 2005
Ende der Leseprobe aus 211 Seiten
- nach oben
Details
- Arbeit zitieren
- , 2007, New Trends in Internet Market, Hamburg, Bedey Media GmbH, https://www.diplom.de/document/225304
Ähnliche Arbeiten
Deutschlands größter Sharing Community
Jetzt Zusammenfassungen, Skripte und Klausuren kostenlos downloaden!
Uniturm.de
Ihre Vorteile als Autor
Geld verdienen Für jedes verkaufte Exemplar erhalten Sie Autorenhonorar - bis zu 40%.Kostenlose Buchveröffentlichung
Als eBook-Studie im Original und / oder auf Wunsch zusätzlich als hochwertiges Fachbuch in unserem renommierten Buchverlag.
Renommee als Fachbuchautor
Präsentieren Sie sich als Fachfrau oder Fachmann in Ihrem Fachgebiet und machen Sie sich bekannt.
Persönliche Betreuung
Unser Lektorat wird Sie persönlich betreuen und ist auch telefonisch unter 040-655992-14 erreichbar.
Weltweit im Buchhandel
Ihr Buch ist weltweit im Buchhandel und Online-Buchhandel wie z.B. amazon erhältlich.
Jetzt Autor werden!
Kommentare