Optism™

We all live in a world ruled by data. People are creating large amounts of data and how companies are analyzing all the “big data” has become a hotly debated issue from a privacy and permission perspective. In an interesting viewpoint, Carl Kalapesi analyzes where the privacy lines are being drawn. He focuses not on one side of the debate or another, but instead tries to find the elusive middle ground.

He begins by explaining the numerous benefits of the Big Data which is achieved when one combines data from different sources to deliver insights and development, both socially and economically. However, public opinion is still focused on the negative aspects of big data, and considers things like security breaches and privacy abuse.

Big companies, like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, are natural targets of the privacy debate as holders of large amounts of personally identifiable data. These companies in an attempt to monetize their free services are lambasted every time they change their privacy policy — no matter how egregious the transgression. Facebook, especially seems to find itself at the center of the privacy debate often, as we profiled earlier this fall in our blog post, Facebook Violates Privacy and Permission.

Mr. Kalapesi says Big Data and Personal Data are not so different. In fact, big data is essentially just a large gathering of personal data that is used for insights and ideas that will better the future, if used correctly. Data itself is neither good nor bad, it is simply whether or not it is being used or abused by those who obtain it. As the organization #WeTheData says “how can we get data to work for us, and not against us?” Kalapesi offers three ways to do just that.

1. Mr. Kalapesi says we must stop the notion that data belongs to anyone, it has multiple creators and therefore multiple owners. It is key that we stop thinking about exclusive ownership, and start caring more about the usage of the data itself. We cannot shut down the flow of data, we just have to make sure it is a safe and trusted stream.
2. He says that in any debate, public opinion is paramount. With so much talk about the negative things that Big Data causes, public opinion has swayed to assume that it’s all against them. Kalapesi mentions the Wall Street Journal, and questions why they never print a positive word about the benefits of Big Data, and instead have seemingly heightened the fear almost like propaganda to start a war on data. There needs to be equal representation on both sides of the debate.
3. Mr. Kalapesi takes issue with the way websites ask for “consent.” The idea that we each essentially lie when asked if we’ve read the 70+ page terms of agreement because we just want to continue the process and can’t be bothered with the terms. While it is each of our responsibilities to know what we’re agreeing to, companies have the obligation to present this information in a clear and concise way. Sites have been making some strides in this area. Kalapesi cites British Telecom (BT) and their “cookie slider” that allows users to know exactly what they are agreeing to and how much access BT will have.

The privacy issue is not going away. Companies who meet this issue head on, with clear privacy statements, will benefit. Companies need to highlight not just the policies, but also give consumers the benefits that big data can deliver now and in the future.

Right now this issue is not black and white, as there are no two clear sides, just a muddy mass of grey. We hope that changes for the better.

On Tuesday, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first SMS message sent by Neil Papworth of Sema Group who texted “Merry Christmas” to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone over Vodafone's GSM Network. It was a truly momentous occasion as over the past two decades, texting has exploded, evolving into one of the most popular and effective means of marketing.

Neil Papworth

The growth of SMS was slow due to technological factors, lack of cooperation between carriers and a scarcity of mobile phone users. Other players in the SMS space during the early years included Telia Sonera Sweden which was the first company to offer network-based SMS and Radiolinja Finland which was the first company to offer person to person SMS. It wasn't until the late 1990's that operators implemented cooperation agreements to deliver texts originating from another carrier.

By 2002, we were sending 250 billion SMS messages annually. This will swell to estimated 6.7 trillion texts that will be sent in 2012. Globally, there is still tremendous growth for SMS — on the range of 13% a year, so it is estimated that 9 trillion texts will be send in 2016. However after 20 years of strong growth, there are chinks in its armor.  Some countries are recording their first ever drop in texts. In England, the number of texts dropped from 39.7 billion in 2011 to an expected 38.5 billion in 2012. Other countries facing drops in SMS messaging include Netherlands, Spain, China, South Korea and the Philippines.

The growth of texting was led by the youth who quickly realized that texting was much cheaper than voice calling. The average US teenager sends around 50-100 texts a day or roughly 25,000 texts a year while other mobile phone users have yet to send their first text. Texting brought acronyms into the popular lexicon, as most people are quite familiar with LOL, ROTFL and OMG. Mobile marketing has been quick to tap into this young and global audience that does not use as much traditional media as older generations. Optism have been focused on using SMS together with permission-based marketing to successfully deliver high response rate campaigns to our global customers.

SMS has become a critical service for geographic areas without an extensive landline communication infrastructure. Many countries rely on SMS as the primary service to provide mobile banking, mobile payments, government alerts and safety notifications. And, when used properly, it’s still one of the most effective channels for providing timely information on products, services and deals and coupons.

As smartphones proliferate — bringing with them new mobile apps that provide new ways to communicate, SMS will eventually decline in popularity. But until then happy birthday and good luck on another 20 years.

BTW, SMS is still the GR8ST!

Over the past month, we have seen a number of interesting announcements and predictions regarding mobile payments. The numbers are both very large and seemingly contradicting.

The term “mobile payment” can mean any number of three different types of mobile transactions. It can mean swiping your phone with your NFC chip or QR Code at a point of sale reader. It can mean sending money to friend via your phone as your divvy up the restaurant check. Or it can mean buying a product online through a mobile browser or app and having the goods shipped to your house.  It would make sense to distinguish between these types of transactions, for example defining these transactions as mobile payments, mobile transfers and mobile shopping respectively with all mobile transactions defined as mobile commerce. As we look at global keyword popularity, we can see that the mobile payments and mobile shopping have taken over for mobile commerce as the most popular term. Now that we have some context about the terms, let us look at the mobile transaction numbers.

IDC announced that worldwide mobile payments will reach $1 trillion by 2017. This forecast includes all mobile commerce components; payments, shopping and transfer. Meanwhile, Juniper Research said that this number will be $1.3 trillion in 2017 while the Yankee Group said it will be only $366 million by 2016. Obviously, there is not a wide consensus in collective mobile payment forecasts.

eMarketer came out said that US mobile proximity payments will reach $62 billion by 2016. This forecast only includes mobile transactions at the local level using your NFC or QR code apps. Currently, eMarketer says that mobile payments will total $600M for 2012 and $2.1 billion for 2013. We mentioned these numbers in our blog post, Are We Setting Our Goals Too Low on Mobile Payments? Growth in these numbers, we predict, will be on the ability of mobile payment solutions to make our lives easier — not just offer another way to pay for goods.

Square announced that they are processing $10 billion dollars in mobile payments annually in the US. This number is up from an $8B run rate in September, so they are growing by 10% a month or about 200% a year. If the numbers continue to grow they will be processing $30 billion dollars annually by this time next year. Even if its growth slows slightly, one can easily see that Square will be processing well over $100 billion in mobile payments by 2016.  PayPal also announced that they too are processing mobile payment transactions at $10 billion dollar annual clip with their PayPal Here devices. If Square and PayPal are already doing about a billion in a month, then the mobile proximity payment forecast of $2.1 billion for 2013 is already in jeopardy.

No matter what we call mobile payment transactions, everyone's guess is as good as yours. We will continue to research these numbers — looking at both mobile payment statistics and the reasons for the growth.