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Polish Mobile Values Services Market Up by 22% in 2008
In its latest report, research and consulting firm PMR estimates that as at the end of 2008 the mobile value added services market in Poland was worth approx. PLN 930 million (US$265 million), up by almost 22% year on year. Between 2009 and 2012 the market is expected to grow further, driven mainly by the development of new value added services that broaden the range of applications of mobile phones - mobile payments, mobile television and mobile marketing.
The retail market of value added services offered to mobile users is still dominated by media and specialised service providers, while mobile operators mainly generate revenues on the rental of their telecommunications infrastructure - reads the report.
This situation is changing as new value added services emerge, frequently requiring large capital expenditure and cooperation with other entities, usually operating in other markets. Because of the scale of their business operations, the telecoms have high bargaining power and capital. Last but not least, they are ready to cooperate to effectively compete with entities from other industries.
Mobile television
At the end of 2008 Poland's four mobile network operators submitted a joint bid in the tender for mobile TV operator. They established Mobile TV, a company which is to compete in the tender with radio diffusion company INFO TV-FM.
The operators estimate that the number of mobile TV users in Poland will reach 100,000 only one year after the commercial launch of the service, and will grow to 1 million within the next several years.
As far as mobile TV content is concerned a research carried out by PMR among the representatives of 100 telecommunications firms in Poland shows that the most sought-after is info and news, followed by sports (53%), music (48%), erotica (43%) and interactive entertainment (39%). In addition, every fifth respondent pointed to user-generated content, and 13% mentioned movies, series and content on demand.
Mobile payments
Another area where mobile operators seek closer cooperation is mobile payments. Work is underway to develop a uniform standard for paying for goods and services with cellphones. The standard is to be an application enabling consumers to use various m-payment solutions, irrespective of the operator and form of payment.
Besides their involvement in this project, Polkomtel, P4 and mBank mobile offer m-payment services in cooperation with mPay. At the same time, PTK Centertel and PTC seek to deploy payments based on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
Mobile marketing
Using mobile phones as a marketing communication channel is not particularly popular in Poland. Yet, it is gaining significance, driven by the growing mobile penetration and the fact that it ensures conveying specific messages to specific user profiles.
As with conventional marketing campaigns, mobile marketing can be divided into "push" and "pull". The former consists in sending various forms of advertising messages (in some cases enabling users to take part in sales promotions). The latter engages users, encouraging them to send a text message or perform some other activity (e.g. download a game, scan a matrix code) in order to take part in a competition, loyalty programme or receive more information. In Poland, "pull" - type mobile marketing tools predominate heavily, mainly due to legal restrictions that require advertisers to obtain prior consent from users for receiving advertising messages to their mobiles.
The main players in mobile marketing in Poland are advertising agencies and specialised service providers. However, mobile operators are showing growing interest in that industry, too. For example, mobile phone users in Polkomtel's 36,6 network may top up their pre-paid cards if they listen to a series of commercials. Other operators are considering the launch of similar services.
Posted to the site on 12th February 2009