Products, products and more products. This was the focal point of the second day of the Mobile West Africa 2014. With the first day focused on learning – sharing knowledge from the mobile ecosystem, the second day was more practical with product CEO’s taking the stage and bellowing some rare insights to how things works behind the scenes.
Here are some valuable insights from leaders in the media space including representatives of the BBC and DSTV:
People want news on the go – Isla Macleod
Isla Macleod of the BBC while making her presentation, made some statements that should make every company sit up and rethink their mobile strategy. She started by mentioning that “There’s a growing preference for news on the go as against news on PCs.” and then continued by giving giving us impressive stats on what BBC pageviews look like and we picked some of the best:
1. 35% of global pageviews of BBC comes from Africa.
2. Sports is one of the dominant pages viewed from Africa.
Nigeria as a test market for mobile technology
Also speaking on day two was Vytas Paukstys of Eskimi, a mobile social network which currently boasts of 8 million users. Vytas talked about engagement and how interaction works on social networks by saying “Adding an incentive to your advertising campaign can get you 4-5 times more engagement” and “If you can make a person spend 20 minutes on a branded page. You can influence his buying decision eventually”. He also added that “Nigeria is the biggest market for anything Eskimi launch, even things that fail in other countries.
Also speaking on the afternoon was Perez Tigidam of Arden & Newton, best known for ‘Touch PH’. Perez gave insights to the formation and early stages of Touch PH, as well as upcoming projects they wished to undertake. He made a remark that should stick to the mind of every development team anywhere in the world; “We are not just building a service. We are building an experience”.
Discussing monetization
Not forgetting the theme for this year’s conference which is ‘expanding mobile data usage & driving monetization through industry collaboration’, the panel focused on mainly on monetization and broadband providers. Vytas did identify the importance of monetization especially in a ‘social media is free’ world. He also pointed out the need for multiple ad networks, Eskimi having 31, as one is not enough to meet the demands and expectations of a content provider.
On broadband and streaming services, Graeme Cumming of DSTV (Digital Media) touched on the prevailing issues of bandwidth and the restrictions it brings when it comes the quality of streaming services. He admitted DSTV would love to get matches to consumer mobile devices, but it would not be affordable for most people as compared to streaming on other devices such as the PC.
On opportunities that exist in the digital & mobile ecosystem, Graeme Cumming said that “The new digital ecosystem presents challenges and opportunities for brands to reach their audiences”, while Daryn Wober added that “61% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that produce custom content”.
No doubt the second day of the conference was packed with information valuable to anyone currently playing or looking to venture in the mobile space affected by broadband, data, social networks, and the big elephant in the room – monetization.
