PayForIt web site found

Thanks to an anonymous comment on one my previous posts about PayForIt, PayPal Mobile Checkout opens, PayForIt watch out, I can now reveal the location of the PayForIt web site

http://www.payforituk.com

Had a quick check again and it still doesn't come up on the first 4 pages of a Google search. Although a service called PayForIt, http://www.payforit.net that allows you to pay for school dinners does.

When choosing a name for this service, given that is was to service the mobile internet, you'd think they'd pick something that at least had the domain name available.

PayForIt is a success

According to this article in Cellular News: Can Global Telcos Replicate the UK's Success with PayForIt? it is.

Not sure how a merchant service consumers haven't heard of can be construed a success.

Tell me I'm wrong, what am I missing?

PayPal Mobile Checkout opens, PayForIt watch out

Picked up a story on Cellular News: PayPal Mobile Checkout Opens for Business. PayPal have launched their Mobile Checkout service to enable mobile commerce for it's merchants.

The solution that the UK mobile industry is touting for merchants wanting to get involved in m-commerce is PayForIt. This relies on mobile service providers like us to provide merchant processes that the operators accredit and therefore the consumer is supposed to trust.

I've searched for PayForIt again, as I have done frequently, and still nothing comes up. No one outside of the mobile industry has heard of it. How can consumers trust something they've never heard of?

Enter PayPal, most people have heard of them, especially the demographic who are purchasing using their mobile phone, immediately it's a trusted service.

They also enforce far, far lower processing charges for the merchants, and I really mean far, far lower.

PayPal is international, if your customer can access the mobile internet and has a PayPal account they can buy in whichever country they want. PayForIt is just UK.

You can probably see where this post is going and why we haven't bothered with PayForIt.

This is another example of the mobile operators just not getting the Internet. They want the sexiness and rapid evolution but have forgotten that the Internet model has been so successful because there are no controls. Without controls there is no opportunity to charge for access and other, more specialised and agile players can pick off the good bits, like merchant services.

I don't know what the answer is, people still want to talk and traditional voice calls are still the best way to do that. Though if the current trend to provide mobile broadband continues, services like Truphone might take that away from them as well.

State of the UK Mobile Content Market

Went to the MDA Member Forum this week. The subject was the state of the UK Mobile Content Market.

Saw some interesting presentations by analysts from Informa as M:Metrics as well as Graham Brown of both Wireless World Forum and Mobile Youth.

In short the ring tone and wallpaper market is dead, too many subscribers have fancy phones that allow them to share content, take great photos and play MP3s whenever someone calls.

Mobile Youth focus on researching the the mobile habits and views of children and their recent research came up with some interesting findings for the network operators. When asked what network they were on, many said 'Nokia' or equivalent. This could be terrible news for the mobile networks. If there is no association with them providing the services then where is the loyalty?

The mobile networks are desparately trying not to become a bit-pipe. If they let that happen they will essentially become mobile ISPs and there is no value in that for them. Unfortunately off-portal is where the growth in consumer spend is going to come, according to Informa.

In response to this demand for off-portal access they are placing a Google search box at the head of their portals, allowing people to leave their controlled, revenue generating environments and out into the frontier land of the Internet. The problem is how do the generate any money?

The Payforit scheme (sorry couldn't find a link) or Trusted Mobile Payment Framework is an attempt by the operators to provide a payment mechanism for this off-portal world. This was officially launched this week. Given the operator's propensity for significant margins on their payment solutions, see premium SMS outpayments, I think they're going to face stiff competition from services like PayPal Mobile.

An alternative is to keep the subscribers on-portal by providing compelling and exclusive content. This can be subsidised through advertising or sponsorship, repeating a business model that has operated for decades in TV, radio and printed media.

Mobile TV is the highest profile example of this new generation of services, although notably the subcriber is currently paying for the privilege in Vodafone's case. Check out my previous post Is Mobile TV the new WAP? for my views on the current offerings.

So the industry that has got fat on ring tones and wallpapers is trying to establish itself as a necessary part of the mobile internet. The problem is they could end up just providing the plumbing.