Over the past two decades, mobile operators have been privy to increasingly detailed information about their users. Aside from people who buy prepaid service with cash, mobile operators have always known the identity and location of customers. Now, thanks to big advances in the capabilities of mobile devices and the sophistication of applications and services, mobile users are leaving ever more wireless footprints all over the place.

Credit the arrival of the true mobile Internet. With capabilities such as location-based services, wireless social networking, and pay-by-mobile for travel, ticketing, and myriad other transactions, mobile operators today have the means to establish a fairly complete profile of their subscribers.

Yet to date, operators haven't exploited this treasure trove of user data -- and now they're facing new rivals as Internet companies start to build direct relationships of their own with mobile users. Online service providers, or OSPs, are muscling into the act: Skype serves more than 400 million users and carried more than 8 percent of the world's international calls last year. Apple has sold over 40 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices, with more than 2 billion apps already downloaded from the iTunes Store. Facebook has more than 300 million active users, with 120 million logging on to the social networking service at least once a day. Some 65 million actively access the service every month via mobile devices, and 4 million-plus do so on a daily basis.

Instant Global Players

Each one of these "new kids on the mobile block" is, of course, building its own user data banks. As such, they're challenging the operators' claim to mobile customers. With no networks to maintain and no geographical constraints, Internet companies can deliver services to a huge number of users at low cost, while increasingly targeting mobile customers with new services. Thanks to the Internet, they automatically become de facto global players, regardless of their actual size or value. There are already hundreds of thousands of such service providers fighting for the attention of Internet users -- and increasingly, of mobile users. Aside from the firms mentioned above, other early winners include Google and its YouTube unit, Twitter, and streaming music service Spotify.

Mobile manufacturers are also getting in on the act of building direct relationships with customers. The iPhone already accounts for around 33 percent of worldwide mobile Web traffic. Nokia has built Skype support into some handsets and has invested heavily in its Ovi wireless portal, which offers services ranging from app downloads to photo sharing. Hutchison's INQ launched as the "social-networking mobile." (continued...)

1  |  2  |  3  |  Next Page >

 

© 2009 Business Week Online under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.