Mobile Word of Mouth marketing

Mobi Thinking is a good resource for anyone interested in the Mobile Industry, I highly recommend it. Recent articles include this great post by Maski Iwata of the Dentsu agency on Word of Mouth advertising and Mobile.

Maski states that Word of Mouth advertising has it’s greatest effect in the teens to twenties age-group in Japan. He refers to viral video and MMS campaigns and there are some very creative examples to see.

It’s been our experience in selling MO-Call that pure Word of Mouth has no age-group boundaries. Customers either like your service or they don’t; some customers who enjoy the benefits of your offer can be positively evangelical in referring friends, family and colleagues.

I’d argue that in creating the Holy Grail of customer loyalty, recommendation of a trustworthy service is more powerful (and infinitely more valuable) than ‘ain’t-this-cool’ viral campaigning.

Press: Aficionado Morodo

Morodo features in the September 2009 edition of Mobile Business Magazine. Full text of the article is published here.

Morodo has created the new Mobile Network Operator model. It was among the first companies in the World to offer mobile voice applications. The business was founded in 2006 and is run by Andrew Reid, CEO, his brother Peter Reid, Sales Director and James Barnes, Chief Technical Officer. Here, we take a look at where this company is going.

Having spent the previous ten years working in telecoms, the writing on the wall was pretty clear, according to Andrew; call origination was migrating to mobile, networks were moving to VoIP. “We saw a fantastic opportunity to offer consumers an alternative network for voice calls. In choosing to develop our own mobile applications we have been able to provide a virtual mobile network operators (VMNO) service that anyone can use, no matter what make or model of mobile they own,” he explains.

VoIP + mobile apps

“Essentially, the convergence of VoIP and mobile application development made it possible for us to create a global VMNO without the burden of costly infrastructure, licensing and operational expenditure associated with a traditional mobile network. MO-Call, our branded calling service was first to be developed,” Andrew comments. “Now working on over 1,620 handsets across Symbian, Windows Mobile, RIM, Android, and J2ME for JAVA supported handsets and in mobile VoIP on over 70 handsets, our software sits on over 450 mobile network operator networks. Customers in over 100 countries are using MO-Call every month.”

Barnes adds: “MO-Call is an application that works on just about every mobile phone in the market. Once installed and running, MO-Call routes calls to the Morodo network, offering a substantial cost saving over MNO tariffs. It doesn’t matter which mobile network operator the customer uses or where they are located in the world, because you can use a local access number, SMS Gateways and VoIP through WiFi, it’s simple to get a call connected. In fact, in most smartphones, the service is seamless and invisible to the consumer.”

The VMNO strategy is to provide united communication access to customers, small to medium sized enterprises and large corporates, notes Peter. To use, a call on MO-Call feels like it has been delivered through the mobile network operators’ services pipe, he says. “We have a model that doesn’t only allow us to grow fast in a country. We can roll it out, in any number of countries in parallel creating a substantial mobile customer and revenue base. This is a model that could be utilised by VMNOs, fixed line operators and ISP’s. Our solution can be rolled out anywhere in the world in either developed or developing markets.”

How it works

Barnes explains what this business does: “Morodo has created the new mobile network operator model. We were amongst the first companies in the world to offer mobile voice applications, and to the best of our knowledge, we still support more mobile devices than any other company bar none. We haven’t stopped innovating and we’ll be offering plenty of new and exciting unified communications features on our roadmap.”

Morodo’s licensing model offers operators the opportunity to grow customer bases outside traditional geographical boundaries, allowing the licensee to step beyond their traditional market and capture market segments and revenue otherwise lost to them.

Further, Morodo has extended the mobile channel to market segments not otherwise equipped to step into the mobile space. MO-Call gives the fixed line operator an inexpensive entry point into the mobile voice origination market. A fixed line operator with an immature mobile business can very quickly bring to market a national or international voice service through a flexible licensing partnership.

Andrew states: “The network operators are becoming bitpipes. In the mass market, customer loyalty and retention is about good customer care and good quality of service, aspects of service that the larger operators keep failing to deliver. Our customers like us because we offer value and for us that goes beyond pence per minute.”

Zero to 3,500

To prove a point, Morodo has gone from zero to 3,500 paying customers in just 15 months. Andrew comments on the challenges: “Over the last 15 months we’ve built a customer base spanning the four corners of the globe. The greatest single challenge has been finding a level of communication with the addressable audience. Simply put it’s getting the good word of MO-Call out there.”

Making sure that Morodo offers sensible and usable methods of payment for an online service has meant managing an ongoing project to localise methods of payment, says Peter. From over the counter EFTPOS payments in Hong Kong, to Polish online payment aggregators, the company believes it has a greater reach than many like minded companies. It can also support traditional distribution channels such as prepaid PIN, just like any other operator except with a much bigger footprint, claims Peter. Andrew agrees: “Our customer base is global and our customers tell us that they love our service. As the cost savings over the MNO tariffs are so large, up to 90%.”

Dealer challenge

However, while a number of UK-based reseller have identified that the MO-Call end user proposition is incredibly strong, unfortunately, those old school resellers have also identified that at this time, they can make greater matgins from reselling MNO contracts. Peter states: “Regrettably we have a situation where the traditional comms reseller channel is part of the problem, not the solution. We wish the channel the best of luck as we can see some very real consolidation coming to the independent dealer sector. Accordingly, we have focused our efforts on internet affiliates. In this commission-based model, an online affiliate earns commission based upon a customer’s monthly MO-Call credit payments to Morodo.”

Yet it is still an interesting proposition, for value-add for the customer alone. On pricing, a call to Australia via Vodafone costs the end user £1.29 per minute, whereas MO-Call charges £0.018 per minute for that same call, with the same or better call quality, says Andrew. In addition to voice and SMS, the MO-Call VoIP application offers presence and instant messaging free of charge, something none of the big five mobile operators in the UK are currently offering, he notes.

Unfair advantage

Andrew says Morodo’s ‘unfair advantage’ in the market is its coverage of mobile handsets, currently 1,620 and growing every month. “No other like minded organisation comes close to that support level,” he states. “Other unique selling points would have to include Morodo’s low cost of operating structure and technology development. Having met the senior management of many competitors, the consensus is that we have done a very good job of keeping costs down.” He continues: “Operating within a declining sales price environment, such as telecoms, teaches you the value of keeping costs low. Of course, building the customer base and business is the biggest challenge now! I’d also add that while other like minded organisations have great applications and very competent people, the usability of our mobile voice applications are extremely compelling and the experience of our staff across the domains of telecoms, mobile handset and internet industries is very strong.”

Peter sums up: “I must add that our level of customer support gives MO-Call a distinct competitive advantage. Excellence in customer service is essential and the trickle down impact of our service culture is witnessed daily in our revenues.”

Skyfire 1.1 preview

Over at AllAboutSymbian Rafe Blandford has a put up a preview of the next Skyfire release.

If you’re not familiar with Skyfire, it’s a free browser that is intended to mimic the PC Internet experience on a mobile. It does that rather well and it works on most Windows Mobile 5 & 6 and Nokia E & N series phones. 

Check out Rafe’s preview, then download Skyfire, you’ll be glad you did.

Hutchison buys into Spotify

Hutchison Whampoa supremo, Li Ka-Shing, has confirmed a sizeable investment in Spotify.  This is exciting news indeed, as Forbes reports, there has been a lot of speculation about Spotify’s funding round target and today’s article indicates a possible market cap of USD 250 million for the company.

Early days yet but I would be suprised if Hutchison limit use of Spotify to their INQ mobiles, the much mooted Spotify app is no doubt the way to go. I wonder whether Apple will allow an app that competes with iTunes on the iPhone?

Spotify is perhaps the most exciting Internet music company in the world, certainly the first to offer a compelling version of FREE that challenges Bit-Torrent (without  intrusive advertising and with lots of useful social tools).

Let’s hope that Spotify expands it’s footprint outside of the UK.

Nokia CEO: We’ve got to transform the company

According to Fierce Wireless, Nokia CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, has admitted that the company is making efforts to restructure itself after accepting that the mobile industry is undergoing the biggest upheaval in two decades.

What successful company doesn’t transform itself? If longevity and profitability is your goal, it’s a mistake not to change your ideas and your expectations to suit your circumstances and your market.

Adaptability is the essence of evolution.

A New Build

We’ve been working on the www.morodogroup.com website, giving it a general overhaul and refreshing things a bit.

Please accept our apologies if you came here this week and found parts of the site missing or old posts unavailable. Normal service has now resumed.

Do let us know what you think of the new look, as always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

2010: the year of Mobile VoIP

Quoting from John Blau’s recent Unstrung Insider column on Mobile VoIP going mainstream, London Telco Analyst, Philip Carse states that everything is falling into place for Mobile VoIP.

I have to say I agree with Philip, circumstances are changing for Mobile VoIP companies; consumer expectations have evolved, fast data on a mobile device is becoming standard, manufacturers are opening more APIs to developers than ever before, the OS community is growing exponentially and of course, app stores are now commonplace and everyone seems  to understand what a mobile app is.

It’s a set of circumstances that we predicted would eventuate, sooner or later, when we founded Morodo. Older methods of alt. telephony such as code-dialers, calling cards and dare I say it, Analogue Telephone Adaptors, are being replaced by software services.

Our strategy has always been to be as widely available and inclusive as possible, a fact evidenced by MO-Call support of 1670 different mobile devices. In the past year, development focus has shifted towards the desktop and the growing availability of WiFi enabled mobiles, ensuring that our customers benefit from every aspect of VoIP and SIP, not just the cost-savings.

Interesting times ahead. Bookmark us and watch.

Twitter is pointless babble

A story that no doubt raised a wry smile from the luddites this week was Pear Analytics’ study of 2,000 tweets which announced that 40% of Tweets are meaningless. 

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Twitter , I don’t find that it meets my own needs as a tool for communication, but I have no doubt that there is a massive value in realtime broadcast IM (which is essentially what Twitter is). In the dark halls of the Mobile Network Operators, someone will be working on a walled version.

For many hundreds of thousands of people, Twitter is an excellent means of staying bang up-to-date with, well, whatever they find important.  Pear’s study found almost 9% of Tweets to have ‘pass-along’ value and nearly 40% to be conversational – sounds like a mirror image of most people’s personal email accounts (without the spam).

A friend of mine who is an avid Twitterer described the service as: ‘the perfect medium for complaining’ as his negative Tweets gather many like-minded responses whilst his positive comments are met with yawning silence. Just seen a bad movie? Everyone wants to chip in with their opinion; just finished a fantastic book? Nada.

Perhaps an in-depth psychological study of Twitter users is called for?

Round Two: Google Voice web app for the iPhone

Mashable linked to a great story in the New York Times about the Google Voice app for the iPhone. I urge you to go and have a read:

“Already, Google says it is readying a replacement for the Google Voice app that will offer exactly the same features as the rejected app—except that it will take the form of a specialized, iPhone-shaped Web page.”

Sounds like a great idea. As Mashable’s Adam Ostrow notes, Jajah released a webpage like this in 2007. What Adam forgets to mention is that Morodo was probably the first alt. mobile VoIP company to offer calling from a webpage configured for the iPhone.

Want to make cheap calls from your iPhone without installing an app? Let MO-Call show you how.

Apple bans Google Voice apps for iPhone

Just in case you have been living under a rock for the last week or so here’s the news: Apple has refused to offer Google Voice Apps for the iPhone from the iTunes app store. Everyone and his dog has been on their soapbox about this one so, without further ado, I’ll clamber up on mine:

Anyone who has bothered to read the Apple Terms & Conditions when downloading the iPhone SDK should know that they are working with a closed platform for a closed device. Apple can, quite legally, ban your app from the iTunes store because they don’t like you, your app or, if they are having a really bad day, because they don’t like the colour of your socks. It would be a fantastic world if every mobile development platform were truly Open Source but that’s not the case and that’s not the way-of-the-world, so if you want to develop for the iPhone you need to work with Apple’s rules.

Apple’s T&C might not seem particularly fair but this is nothing new. If I write a BREW app for Verizon Wireless cellphones, I will have to go through Qualcomm/Verizon to distribute that app. The platform belongs to it’s patent holder and is licensed to the Operator. Together they approve your app (or not) and in the case of my software, MO-Call – an app that competes with the Operator – they most certainly disapprove.

Nothing that Apple has done is any different from the approval processes that other Operators have been running for years. In fact, we should celebrate Apple as they (arguably) changed the game by being the first manufacturer to retain significant control of the app store and content.

Given the columns of newsprint and blogtype devoted to the subject recently, the fact that Apple picked Google as a target, rather than say Truphone, has harmed neither them, nor the target.

In summary: Caveat Emptor.

PS: None of the above has stopped us from developing a  MO-Call app for the iPhone.