Mobile Internet – The Shifting Mindset, By Mark Curtis, CEO Of Flirtomatic

Published 3rd March 2008

When WAP originally appeared in the UK back in 1999, many consumers shunned the service due to slow connections, high call charges and a lack of meaningful and useful mobile internet sites. But the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association show that making it cheap and easy to access the internet on a mobile phone has greatly increased its usage.

More than 17 million people accessed the internet on a mobile phone in December last year. These figures demonstrate that we’ve moved on from the days when mobile internet was derided as an over-hyped and under-performing user-experience. It now forms the basis of something that users can regularly interact with and that businesses can profit from, building healthy revenue streams in the process.

As well as growing usage levels, we are also seeing evidence in the emergence of strong, repeat advertising from advertisers who are seeing an improved ROI from mobile internet. Admob, for example, is regularly showing an increase in inventory each month.
Operators, such as 3, offer mobile internet services for free or on fixed rate data bundles, with useful, real-time information including breaking news headlines, travel news and internet banking. And as brands find it increasingly easier to make their existing content ever more mobile internet-friendly, we’re starting to see more exclusive mobile content.
In addition, Nokia is investing in building infrastructure around mobile internet advertising and the way the iPhone is driving internet usage shows that given the right handset or device, users will be more likely explore the mobile internet.

Flirtomatic has found dramatic evidence that with the right combination of function and price, users will consume the mobile internet avidly. After a year of Flirtomatic being available to the mass market on mobile, the usage rates of 2,000 pages per user and log-ins over eight times a day, are remarkably consistent from month to month.

However, the main turn-off points remain the same. Users still find small phone screens limiting and feedback from research groups and our customers suggests that users are still very wary of hidden costs, a hangover from the ring tone subscription model.

Flirtomatic understands that a service provider cannot work hard enough to put the word ‘free’ in front of its customers – but they still won’t listen. Ironically, this is often down to users being in a hurry to continue with the process.

Regardless, mobile internet is about fast no-frills access to important content on the move – and people are now, finally, beginning to wake up to its benefits.