Tag: MasterCard

Can ecosystem models advance network API monetisation?

The network API opportunity

In our report Network APIs: Driving new revenue streams for telcos (April 2023) STL Partners forecast a revenue potential of more than US$22 billion globally for the top 11 network APIs by 2028 – a significant revenue opportunity for telecoms operators. Realisation of this potential depends on the telcos’ ability to select the right commercialisation strategy.

Telcos will need to distribute network APIs widely. For this, they could consider API distribution through:

  • their own platforms (providing services to large enterprises, e.g. T-Mobile’s DevEdge Platform in the US and Germany)
  • supply-side aggregators (similar to Twillio or Vonage)
  • system integrators
  • hyperscalers

But these options do have drawbacks. For example, telco-own platforms may struggle to scale (due to coverage limitations), margins and ability to add value through aggregators are limited, system integrator routes could also struggle to scale – and hyperscaler channels could risk ceding more control to these players than the telcos would like.

Work being done by the likes of CAMARA and the GSMA Open Gateway initiative to increase standardisation and interoperability of APIs may open up further distribution and commercialisation options in time. But additionally, we propose that telcos examine API distribution mechanisms that leverage the benefits of ecosystem business frameworks.

In our report Telco ecosystems: How to make them work (July 2020), STL Partners outlined several benefits of ecosystem business frameworks and why they can be particularly suited to new product and service areas where there is some uncertainty:

  • They support responsiveness to customer requirements (e.g., enable alternative feature bundling as the market moves).
  • They support continuous value-creation and innovation (partners bring in new service elements).
  • They support scale (the telco does not have to do everything on its own as more customers attract more partners, etc.).

The network API opportunity is still emerging and could benefit from the adoption of a flexible commercial approach, such as that presented by an ecosystem business framework. Ecosystem ways of working can encourage and make it easier for developers and enterprise to innovate, leveraging network API capabilities. In this report, we look at four examples of ecosystem-based business frameworks (the business models of existing companies) and consider how they might apply (hypothetically) to the network API opportunity – with a view to exploring the attractiveness of the approach for telcos navigating this area.

Our aim is to extend telco understanding of such models – as opposed to furnishing them with a specific recommendation regarding the commercialisation of network APIs – in the first instance. We wish to highlight the factors that telcos should bear in mind when considering ecosystem strategies.

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The ecosystem way

Ecosystem business frameworks are an alternative way of structuring economic activity and value creation versus vertical integration or linear, supplier-based frameworks. See Figure 3.

Comparing business frameworks

Source: STL Partners

The framework requires a strong customer value proposition in the first instance. In digital ecosystems, the value proposition typically involves using technology to link different aspects of a customer’s digital life in new ways (for example, Google Maps to show the way to a searched-for store). Once the value proposition is clear, the ecosystem creator (orchestrator) considers the components of the proposition and how to make it commercially viable (e.g. scale). They focus on their strengths within the set-up (what they do well) and invite others (suppliers/complementors) into the ecosystem to build out the proposition. This requires them to attract external stakeholders into an orchestrated business environment, where they share strong assets and capabilities with participants to help them create value for end customers (and the participant themselves). To be successful, ecosystems must therefore be designed with both customer and participant engagement and motivations in mind (insufficient participant engagement may mean supply-side failure).

Key requirements for a successful ecosystem are:

  • Putting the end-customer needs at the centre of an ecosystem to ensure the delivery of customer value (this requires a deep understanding of behaviour and motivations).
  • The ability to deliver an excellent experience for customers and participants to attract and maintain their engagement (i.e., minimising friction for all parties).
  • Enabling continuous innovation to deepen/extend relationships.
  • The ability to follow a dynamic strategic approach to enable the ecosystem to adjust, or even change direction, to accommodate unforeseen ecosystem consequences, as well as changes in customer requirements or market forces.

Table of content

  • Executive Summary
  • Table of Figures
  • Introduction
  • The ecosystem way
    • Why an ecosystem could be the best approach for APIs
  • An “association” approach – Mastercard
    • How does the model work?
    • How could this apply to APIs?
    • What does it take to work?
    • Evaluation of the approach
  • A vertical marketplace approach – Symworld
    • How does the model work?
    • How could this apply to APIs?
    • What does it take to work?
    • Evaluation of the approach
  • An OEM approach – Volkswagen/CARIAD
    • How does the model work?
    • How could this apply to APIs?
    • What does it take to work?
    • Evaluation of the approach
  • Use case marketplace – Amdocs
    • How does the model work?
    • How could this apply to APIs?
    • What does it take to work?
    • Evaluation of the approach
  • Conclusions and recommendations
    • How the ecosystem approaches are geared to succeed
    • Recommendations
  • Index

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Digital Commerce 2.0: New $50bn Disruptive Opportunities for Telcos, Banks and Technology Players

Introduction – Digital Commerce 2.0

Digital commerce is centred on the better use of the vast amounts of data created and captured in the digital world. Businesses want to use this data to make better strategic and operational decisions, and to trade more efficiently and effectively, while consumers want more convenience, better service, greater value and personalised offerings. To address these needs, Internet and technology players, payment networks, banks and telcos are vying to become digital commerce intermediaries and win a share of the tens of billions of dollars that merchants and brands spend finding and serving customers.

Mobile commerce is frequently considered in isolation from other aspects of digital commerce, yet it should be seen as a springboard to a wider digital commerce proposition based on an enduring and trusted relationship with consumers. Moreover, there are major potential benefits to giving individuals direct control over the vast amount of personal data their smartphones are generating.

We have been developing strategies in these fields for a number of years, including our engagement with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Rethinking Personal Data project, and ongoing research into user data and privacy, digital money and payments, and digital advertising and marketing.

This report brings all of these themes together and is the first comprehensive strategic playbook on how smartphones and authenticated personal data can be combined to deliver a compelling digital commerce proposition for both merchants and consumers. It will save customers valuable time, effort and money by providing a fast-track to developing and / or benchmarking a leading edge strategy and approach in the fast-evolving new world of digital commerce.

Benefits of the Report to Telcos, Other Players, Investors and Merchants


For telcos, this strategy report:

  • Shows how to evaluate and implement a comprehensive and successful digital commerce strategy worth up to c.$50bn (5% of core revenues in 5 years)
  • Saves time and money by providing a fast-track for decision making and an outline business case
  • Rapidly challenges / validates existing strategy and services against relevant ‘best in class’, including their peers, ‘OTT players’ and other leading edge players.


For other players including Internet companies, technology vendors, banks and payment networks:

  • The report provides independent market insight on how telcos and other players will be seeking to generate $ multi-billion revenues from digital commerce
  • As a potential partner, the report will provide a fast-track to guide product and business development decisions to meet the needs of telcos (and others) that will need to make commensurate investment in technologies and partnerships to achieve their value creation goals
  • As a potential competitor, the report will save time and improve the quality of competitor insight by giving a detailed and independent picture of the rationale and strategic approach you and your competitors will need to take


For merchants building digital commerce strategies, it will:

 

  • Help to improve revenue outlook, return on investment and shareholder value by improving the quality of insight to strategic decisions, opportunities and threats lying ahead in digital commerce
  • Save vital time and effort by accelerating internal decision making and speed to market


For investors, it will:

  • Improve investment decisions and strategies returning shareholder value by improving the quality of insight on the outlook of telcos and other digital commerce players
  • Save vital time and effort by accelerating decision making and investment decisions
  • Help them better understand and evaluate the needs, goals and key strategies of key telcos and their partners / competitors

Digital Commerce 2.0: Report Content Summary

  • Executive Summary. (9 pages outlining the opportunity and key strategic options)
  • Strategy. The shape and scope of the opportunities, the convergence of personal data, mobile, digital payments and advertising, and personal cloud. The importance of giving consumers control. and the nature of the opportunity, including Amazon and Vodafone case studies.
  • The Marketplace. Cultural, commercial and regulatory factors, and strategies of the market leading players. Further analysis of Google, Facebook, Apple, eBay and PayPal, telco and financial services market plays.
  • The Value Proposition. How to build attractive customer propositions in mobile commerce and personal cloud. Solutions for banked and unbanked markets, including how to address consumers and merchants.
  • The Internal Value Network. The need for change in organisational structure in telcos and banks, including an analysis of Telefonica and Vodafone case studies.
  • The External Value Network. Where to collaborate, partner and compete in the value chain – working with telcos, retailers, banks and payment networks. Building platforms and relationships with Internet players. Case studies include Weve, Isis, and the Merchant Customer Exchange.
  • Technology. Making appropriate use of personal data in different contexts. Tools for merchants and point-of-sale transactions. Building a flexible, user-friendly digital wallet.
  • Finance. Potential revenue streams from mobile commerce, personal cloud, raw big data, professional services, and internal use.
  • Appendix – the cutting edge. An analysis of fourteen best practice and potentially disruptive plays in various areas of the market.

 

Telco 2.0: how to accelerate the implementation of new business models

Summary: Opportunities exist for operators to support third-party businesses in Customer Profiling, Marketing offers, ID & Authentication, Network QoS, and Billing, Payments & Collection. However, our in-depth research among senior execs in ‘upstream’ industries (e.g. retail, media, IT, etc.) and telcos shows that poor communication of the telecoms value proposition and slow implementation by operators is frustrating upstream customers and operators alike. Our new analysis identifies strategic customer segments for telcos building new ‘Telco 2.0’ business models, key obstacles to overcome, six real-world implementation strategy scenarios, and strategic recommendations for telcos. (March 2012, Executive Briefing Service, Transformation Stream.) Google's Advertising Revenues Cascade

 

  • Below is an extract from this 29 page report, kindly commissioned and sponsored by Openet and independently produced by Telco 2.0. Openet developed the initial research concept and scope. The research, analysis and the writing of the report itself was carried out independently by STL Partners.
  • Members of the Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service can download this report in full in PDF format here.
  • Alternatively, to download this report for free, join our Foundation 2.0 service (details here) by using the promotional code FOUNDATION2 in the box at the bottom of the sign-up page here. Once registered, you will be able to download the report here.
  • We’ll also be discussing our findings at the EMEA Executive Brainstorm in London (12-13 June, 2012).
  • To access reports from the full Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service, to submit whitepapers for review for inclusion in this service, or to find out more about our services please email contact@telco2.net or call +44 (0) 207 247 5003.

Preface

This research has been designed to explore how valuable new telecoms solutions could be for third-party companies (a key part of Telco 2.0), as well as to evaluate the barriers to effective implementation. Third-parties (upstream customers) and operators were interviewed to explore their thoughts in this key strategic area for the telecommunications industry.

Openet White Paper Cover Image

Executive Summary

Headline Conclusions

  • Opportunities exist for operators to support third-party businesses in Customer Profiling, Marketing offers, ID & Authentication, Network QoS, and Billing, Payments & Collection.
  • Poor communication of the telecoms value proposition and slow implementation by operators is frustrating upstream customers and managers within operators themselves.
  • There are four upstream customer segments. Two of these are particularly important for the operators to address when developing go-to-market approaches:
  • Enthusiasts who need full-service Telco 2.0 solutions now;
  • Non-believers who need to be educated on the value of telecoms enabling services and convinced of operators’ ability to implement.
  • There are few material barriers to developing solutions except operators’ inability to implement effectively:
  • Although lack of cross-operator solutions and regulatory impediments are considered significant in Europe and the US.
  • There are four key reasons for the slow implementation by operators:
  • Reason 1: Insufficient investment by operators in services and service enabler platforms.
  • Reason 2: Financial metrics which do not encourage investment in new business models.
  • Reason 3: Inability to pin down the optimal timing for investment in new business models.
  • Reason 4: A prisoners’ dilemma over whether to collaborate or compete with other operators and with upstream customers when implementing solutions.

For the complete recommendations, detailed conclusions and full analysis, please download the report by following the instructions at the top of this page.

 

Introduction, Objectives and Methodology

The research consisted of interviews with 26 major corporations that use telecoms networks to deliver services to consumers including players from advertising, media, financial services and retail (upstream customers or ‘third-party’ companies). Interviewees where senior managers who were responsible for the provision of services via digital channels and thus were familiar with the challenges and opportunities they faced in this developing market segment. Additionally, STL Partners interviewed senior managers from 16 major mobile and converged communications service providers (see Figure 1 below for more details on participants).

The objectives of the research were to determine:

  • What Telco 2.0 (enabling) services would upstream customers like to see from communications service providers?
  • What are the most common use cases and attractive commercial models for such services?
  • What are the current barriers to realising the Telco 2.0 opportunity and what needs to be done to overcome these barriers?

Figure 1: Interviews conducted with players from telecoms and adjacent industries

Companies interviewed for this report

Source: STL Partners

Interviews were 30-60 minutes in length and largely qualitative in nature. Some quantitative questions were asked so that the relative attractiveness of Telco 2.0 solution areas and the size of implementation barriers could be evaluated. The interviews were also designed to uncover differences in perspective between:

  • Operators and upstream customers;
  • Upstream customers from different industry groups – Advertising, Media, Financial services and IT;
  • Operators from different geographic regions – Europe, North America, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia Pacific (APAC).

Interviews were conducted with senior decision-makers and influencers and, to ensure discussions were full and frank, the content of interviews has not been attributed to individual companies.

Report Contents

 
  • Introduction
  • Real potential value in Telco assets but implementation proving difficult
  • Defining the opportunity areas
  • Strong overall alignment across all eight areas between operators and upstream customers
  • Averages hide variations in upstream customer responses
  • Operators consistent about opportunities apart from Identity & Authentication solutions
  • Telco ability to implement is seen by all as the key barrier…
  • …although operators in Europe and US also see lack of cross-operator solutions and regulation as key barriers
  • Four upstream customer segments require different solutions from operators
  • Operator segment mix looks very different to upstream
  • Why are operators finding implementing Telco 2.0 so hard?
  • Reason1: Insufficient investment by operators in services and service enabler platforms
  • Reason 2: Financial metrics which do not encourage investment in new business models
  • Reason 3: Inability to pin down the optimal timing for investment in new business models
  • Reason 4: A prisoners’ dilemma over whether to collaborate or compete with other operators and with upstream customers when implementing solutions
  • Conclusions and recommendations

Report Figures

 
  • Figure 1: Interviews conducted with players from telecoms and adjacent industries
  • Figure 2: Broad alignment on opportunity areas from operators & upstream customers
  • Figure 3: Upstream customers – variation even within industry sectors for specific Telco 2.0 solution areas
  • Figure 4: Perceived lack of telco interest in developing new solutions for upstream customers
  • Figure 5: Regional differences in operator opportunity sizing for Identity & Authentication solutions
  • Figure 6: Telco operational and organisation limitations seen as the biggest barrier to success
  • Figure 7: Regional differences in perception of key barriers to Telco 2.0 implementation
  • Figure 8: Upstream customer segments
  • Figure 9: Telco go-to-market approaches for upstream customer segments
  • Figure 10: Telco segments – Telco 2.0 could be valuable but can it be realised?
  • Figure 11: An historical lack of investment in services by operators threatens voice, messaging and newer Telco 2.0 solutions
  • Figure 12: Current operator metrics discourage investment in new business models
  • Figure 13: New business model investment timing dilemma
  • Figure 14: The prisoners’ dilemma
  • Figure 15: Six Telco 2.0 implementation strategies
  • Figure 16: Value-creating and value-destroying approaches
  • Figure 17: Geography determines the most important Telco 2.0 implementation strategies

To access this report:

  • The 29 page Telco 2.0 Report can be downloaded in full in PDF format by members of the Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service here.
  • Additionally, to give an introduction to the principles of Telco 2.0 and digital business model innovation, we now offer for download a small selection of free Telco 2.0 Briefing reports (including this one) and a growing collection of what we think are the best 3rd party ‘white papers’. To access these reports you will need to become a Foundation 2.0 member. To do this, use the promotional code FOUNDATION2 in the box provided on the sign-up page here. Your Foundation 2.0 member details will allow you to access the reports shown here only, and once registered, you will be able to download the report here.
  • We’ll also be discussing our findings at the EMEA Executive Brainstorm in London (12-13 June, 2012).
  • To access reports from the full Telco 2.0 Executive Briefing service, or to submit whitepapers for review for inclusion in this service, please email contact@telco2.net or call +44 (0) 207 247 5003.

About Openet

Openet Logo

Openet is a leading provider of Service Optimization Software (SOS) tailored to meet the evolving needs of communications service providers, or CSPs, including wireless, wireline and cable network operators. Openet’s integrated, high-performance software solutions provide real-time policy management, rating, charging and subscriber data management solutions to enable real-time, contextual network resource allocation and monetization decisions based on information about the end user and the service being used. CSPs use Openet’s SOS solutions to enhance quality of service, create a more personalized end user experience, develop new business models and dynamically control network resources. Openet’s SOS solutions are used by more than 80 customers in 28 countries. For more information, please visit www.openet.com.

Organisations interviewed for the report: Televisa, BBC, Intuit, Google, Tesco, MTV, Intel, TiVo, Sling, Ogilvy, Fox, Omnicom, Microsoft, Visa, Barclaycard, Ultraviolet,  PRS, American Express, MasterCard, CitiGroup, On Live, Warner Bros, MEF, Gap, Salesforce, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint,  Deutsche Telekom, Du, Teliasonera, Orange, Everything Everywhere, Turkcell, Qtel, Etisalat, Singtel, Axiata, Telekom Indonesia, TIM, Tele2.