In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry.This week, founder and CEO Stuart Lacey introduces Trunomi…

Trunomi unlocks the power of customer data using consent and data rights. We provide technology which enables businesses to request, receive and capture customer consent to the use of their personal data or preferences – for whatever purpose the business specifies e.g. digital marketing.

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week CEO Dario Calogero introduces Ubiquity.

Ubiquity Group is a global multi-channel messaging platform provider, focusing on ubiquitous communication for Large Enterprises, SME (small and medium-sized enterprises), and Developers, providing innovative solutions. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, the company has 184 professionals across Europe, India, and the Middle East, in 8 offices locations.

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week, Declan Pettit introduces Monitoring & Compliance Partners.

MCP are a Mobile Advertising Monitoring company. Headquartered in UK, we have operations (currently 45 people) across EMEA with a variety of client types; Payment Processors, Network Operators, Regulators and On-line Merchants. We provide the tools to ensure market intelligence and pro-active regulatory due diligence are at the forefront of our clients’ strategic thinking and responsibilities.

In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week, Gary Greenbaum introduces the leader in sponsored data Syntonic.

Syntonic provides consumers a way to access mobile content without worrying about how much data they are consuming. Our application, Freeway by Syntonic, can be downloaded on the Google Play Store and App Store. It’s been deployed in several geographies including the U.S., India, and Indonesia.

Smartphones are not just a part of our lives, they are our lives.

That’s just one of the conclusions reached in Deloitte Africa’s recent consumer survey, Game of Phones.

Here Arun Babu, Partner in the Strategy & Operations practice of Deloitte Consulting in Africa and Telecommunications Leader looks more deeply at the survey results which indicate the primacy of smartphones in one of the world’s most interesting and dynamic markets.

Global Communications Manager Sam Hill shares details of a new industry platform for members and non-members alike, a curated database of current research, reports and whitepapers from across the mobile ecosystem.
While there is a wealth of useful material out there taking a deep-dive into the latest consumer insights, tech trends and buzzwords, finding current data or research on specific areas of interest can be time-consuming, and it can be easy to miss that essential data nugget you’re after.

MEF’s recently published Mobile Money Report supported by Wirecard, asked 6,000 consumers in nine countries about their usage and attitudes towards mobile payments. It paints a detailed picture of how mobile money is taking hold in both growth and established markets and is available to download here for free.

The study found that 78 per cent of us had made a purchase by mobile in the previous six months, which suggests that all but the most tech-phobic consumers have now embraced the m-commerce habit. That figure is a global average. There are of course differences at the country level. China for example is leading the charge. The study reveals 88% of China’s citizens currently make mobile transactions.

Below we’ve picked out 18 statistics from the report that track the use of mobile money around the world.

The World Economic Forum is very optimistic about the potential of digital technologies to supercharge the global economy. But it says trust issues could hold this revolution back. Its new research paper dives into the topic.

In the 20th century the global economy was supercharged by the arrival of choice. Commodities turned into brands. Product differentiation exploded.

In the 21st century, digital technologies will drive the next wave of growth. So says the World Economic Forum. It is, not surprisingly, very optimistic about this potential revolution.

Frederic Martinent, Product Marketing Director at Gemalto envisions the nightmarish dilemma facing mobile network operators on how to deal with the pressing problem of monetizing, or not, their customer’s data.

A voice whispers to you, “monetize…monetize…monetize”. You’re suddenly surrounded by board members, staring at you sternly. “Why didn’t you take this opportunity?” the director of finance glowers at you, his face made up of data rather than flesh. Suddenly, they all stand up and march towards you, reaching for you and your job with outstretched hands.

Ira Cohen, VP of Business Development and Marketing for MEF Member MMD Smart reflects on an eventful MWC 2017, and how the changes seen on the show floor reflect the ongoing evolution of the mobile industry.

“Is this really a mobile congress or is this the Detroit Auto Show?” was my first internal impression of MWC 2017. The dynamic changes from my first time at MWC 20 years earlier in Cannes, when it was still called the GSMA Conference, and even from many previous times attending MWC in Barcelona, are extraordinary.

Research2Guidance, the leading mHealth market research company, has launched its 7th annual mHealth App Developer Economics Study for 2017. As as official partner, MEF is inviting members of the global app ecosystem to get involved in shaping the future of the mHealth industry. Research2Guidance Business Analyst David Ireland explains…

Research2Guidance has once again opened its doors to the annual mHealth App Developer Economics Study for the seventh year. This is your opportunity to have your voice heard throughout the mobile health community, and beyond.

Nathan Kinch, Head of Experience and Labs at Meeco, outlines the rise of the attribute economy, as described in a new report co-authored by thought leaders in digital identity, personal data services and regulation.

“In computing, attributes are pieces of information, which determine the properties of a field or tag in a database, or a string of characters in a display. In more human terms, attributes are qualities, features, characteristics or an inherent part of someone or something.

MEF has announced the results of its Global, EMEA and LatAm board elections for the 2017/2019 term following its AGM in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress last week.

19 executives representing the diversity of the global mobile ecosystem from mobile operators to companies at the forefront of mobile payments, messaging, personal data and content were elected to take forward MEF’s mandate.

MEF has announced the results of its Global Board elections for the 2015/2016 term following its AGM in London last week.

Candidates representing a variety of markets and sectors contested four seats on MEF’s Global Board, reflecting the organisation’s diverse membership as mobile becomes the primary technology for engaging consumers in growth and established markets

The newly elected and re-elected board directors are:

It’s one of the great truisms of the mobile industry: smartphone ownership is rocketing in developing markets. But is it true? Well, kind of but not really. At least according…

All over the world, ride-sharing apps are taking on powerful local taxi businesses. But in India, the situation is a little different: there are hardly any local firms to take…

Rafael Pellon, MEF LatAm Board Member and partner at Focaccia, Amaral, Salvia, Pellon & Lamonica, here explores the ongoing issues surrounding the repeated blocking of hugely popular Whatsapp across Brazil, and the knock on effects this has had across the region and the mobile app ecosystem.

Almost a month since the 2nd wholesale blockage of WhatsApp in Brazil, Brazilians are starting to appreciate that WhatsApp has become nothing but essential.

MEF recently hosted its largest LatAm event to date: MEF Connects Brazil, held during Tela Viva Móvel, supported by Movile and Digital Virgo.

Over 130 senior executives from 60 companies representing the mobile ecosystem in Latin America got together for the business networking event.

We partnered with Tela Viva Móvel, the most relevant conference in Brazil for the mobile sector.

Brazil’s economic growth is well documented. It is a mobile first country with 50 per cent of all households using mobile as their primary means for communicating and getting online.

Today that’s a mix of feature phones and smartphones but by 2018, one third of the country is predicted to own a smartphone.

Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF), is today announcing the results of its 2016 EMEA and LatAm board elections which took place during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week.

As mobile continues its reign to become the primary channel to engage and transact with consumers…

MEF recently hosted the third annual MEF Connects Indonesia in Jakarta in association with Indosat/Ooredoo. The event was supported by TIMWE Group and Bango. MEF Asia GM Linda Ruck shares highlights and photos from the night.
With a population fast approaching 260 million, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and the third-largest smartphone market in the Asia-Pacific region (following China and India). A mobile first nation, Indonesian’s love social media, with Facebook (fourth largest user base in the world), Instagram and Twitter ruling – while mobile money has made great progress, cash is still king.

In our Spotlight interview, we learned how Syniverse approaches security and privacy in the brand/consumer relationship globally. But how does the global transaction processor approach doing business in the uniquely challenging Chinese market?

We spoke with Dave Ratner, President of Enterprise Solutions during GMIC Beijing about Syniverse’ business in China and how the company enables brands and enterprises to “connect, engage, interact and protect” its mobile first customers.

We spoke to many of our members during this year’s GMIC Beijing about the challenges and opportunities of providing mobile services for the Chinese market.

Here are two more video interviews with members active in China, mobile messaging business, Twilio and law firm Dentons, who share their insights into what its like to do business in this challenging market.

You can’t succeed in China unless you have an unfair advantage. But if you do have one, the rewards are huge. That was the key take-away from experts at the recent MEF Connects China held during GMIC Beijing…

Thinking of expanding your business into China? Be careful. This is the advice from a VC that specialises in taking overseas companies into the region.

“95 per cent of companies do not belong here.”

High-profile data breaches and a growing consumer desire to know how user information is gathered, stored and brokered underlines just how central the issue of consumer trust is in mobile.

Supported by Mozilla and bics, MEF’s recently published Consumer Trust eBulletin explores these issues and offers insights on regulation, market stats, and via MEF’s white paper – Understanding the Personal Data Economy – a closer look at the idea that consumers can actively participate in how their personal data is used – a model premised on a value exchange that is built on trust and informed user consent.

MEF member Gemalto shares the findings of its new survey, revealing the key success factors to be met by mobile operators and brands in Nigeria to maximize user engagement for mobile marketing campaigns.

Has the mobile advertising era finally reached Nigeria? As a matter of fact, 2017 will see mobile advertising spending exceed desktop ad spending for the first time. And by 2019 spending on mobile will represent 64% of all Internet advertising spending in the country.

The latest issue of MEF’s eBulletin is out today and turns the spotlight on mobile messaging taking an in-depth look at the issues, news and market drivers shaping the enterprise messaging space including analysis on revenue leakage, global market forecasts, conversational commerce and how being consumer-centric boosts engagement.

Businesses are increasingly turning to enterprise messaging as a key platform for engaging consumers. Impressive open rates for marketing messages are well cited. But beyond this areas such as authentication and notification in sectors like banking and healthcare as well as relationship building for brands and retailers are driving the messaging ecosystem forward.

One billion iPhones and $50 billion paid out to developers. The landmark numbers keep on coming from Apple. Here are 12 key stats you should know about the world’s biggest tech hardware maker…

Shortly before Tim Cook revealed the app store milestone, Apple announced its third quarter results. So let’s take a look at key performance data of the world’s largest (occasionally second largest) tech company.

With summer holiday season fast approaching, it is time once again for travel marketers to focus their spending on the channels that matter – and for savvy professionals that means putting mobile at the centre of the mix.

This infographic from MDG Advertising notes the importance of mobile optimisation for any travel site, and the prevalence of mobile in booking and sharing among millenials. Worth noting too is the sheer increase in mobile search for travel categories across the board in 2015; hotel searches up 49 per cent, cruises, 49 per cent and airlines 33 per cent.

55 percent of consumers expect their mobile health apps to be hacked within the next six months, according to a recent report from Arxan Technologies. Executive IT leaders (48%) who have oversight or insight into the security of the mobile healthcare and produce apps also share the same concerns.

Mobile financial services continue to push out in every direction. From simply sending money peer-to-peer through to in-built car technology that allows drivers to pay for petrol without leaving their vehicle. Its all going on.

This infographic from Ovum and Amdocs is the result of the findings from a survey of 8,500 mobile users across 17 markets and provides insight in to user behaviour and the barriers to entry in the mobile money sphere.

In 1997, Bill Gates said, “We need banking but we don’t need banks.”

In other words its the FinTech services that support the ways in which consumers and businesses transact that are paving the way forward. For most, mobile devices are the centrepiece of the disruption and with that disruption, investment is following.

The EU’s general data protection regulation (GDPR), is just under one year away and expands the rights of EU citizens around privacy and protection of personal data.

Among other things, it requires that companies maintain adequate data records, disclose data breaches and increase opt-out options. Heavy fines are on the table for companies that do not comply.

We asked MEF members and experts the wider mobile, legal and data industries to give us their thoughts on GDPR readiness, the implications for consumer privacy and whether or not they view the forthcoming legislation as an opportunity. Here’s what they said…

Danny Preiskel, co-founder and Senior Partner at MEF Member Preiskel & Co discusses the importance of the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and shares details of an exclusive event at which attendees can learn more about the opportunities the new regulation may present.

As MEF’s on-going initiatives in Consumer Trust demonstrate, it is an area that is becoming increasingly important and likely to become critical to our ecosystem.

GDPR will drastically change the ways you may process and must protect personal data in Europe impacting directly on anyone doing business in Europe, wherever on the planet you are located.

Mobile messaging taps into the human desire for contact. But what about the human desire for privacy? Alan Duric, co-founder and CTO at Wire wants to bring it back.

Here he talks to MEF Minute features editor, Tim Green about his privacy-first chat app as part of MEF’s recently published Future of Messaging Guide which can be downloaded here for free.

The success of mobile messaging proves one thing. However fast technology moves, people beings will always want to communicate with other people.

Every social network – Facebook, SnapChat, Line, WeChat – just reminds us of this basic human need.

Is data privacy falling by the wayside in the rush to digitize online services? When users interact with social media, chat apps, online retailers, financial services and more, how personal data is used is a source of increasing concern for consumers.

A MEF study published in 2016 revealed that 36 per cent of consumers are put off from downloading and using more mobile apps and services due to privacy and security concerns whilst 52 per cent have deleted apps that worried them.

Deutsche Telekom has launched a competition to prove that this does not have to be the case.

Last week’s ransomware attacks were aimed at vulnerabilities typical of big enterprises and government bodies, but the true impact was felt by consumers – cancelled trains in Germany, people forced to pay cash for petrol in China, missed hospital appointments in the UK, the list goes on, with poor user experience and damaging trust the result.

While the WannaCry attack was upon a very specific desktop vulnerability, the possibility of similar attacks on other operating systems, the media coverage and the effect on consumer’s perception of digital safety are lessons to be learnt. We asked what can mobile tech industries can do to better prepare for similar attacks and protect consumers…

Accenture’s 2017 Banking Technology Vision report explores the role of AI in banking and customer engagement. It found that 78 per cent of bankers believe AI will revolutionise the way banks gather information and interact with customers.

One of the key advantages highlighted was that whilst AI is increasingly automating customer interaction, it is also providing a more personalised experience.

Chatbots for example are increasingly used by banks to handle routine enquiries and represent a more personalised experience than visiting the modern day substitute for branch banking, a website or app, where customers interact with layers of screens and drop-down menus instead of a person.

Another Mobile World Congress is over. There was more of everything this year. More visitors (108,000 up 7% on 2016), more exhibitors, more keynotes and more announcements made. It can get very noisy.

But in amongst the noise the important technology trends emerged, trends that will shape the mobile ecosystem going forward.

2016 was an eventful year for technology innovation across the board. And whilst new models have come to the fore the global base of mobile users continues to grow, confirming mobile’s central role in how businesses innovate and monetise their services.

Everything has been fair game, from the collection and responsible use of user data through to new ways for consumers to perform everyday tasks like talking to their bank, ordering and buying a coffee or transferring money to a friend.

But how will the mobile ecosystem change in 2017? And what are the areas of the ecosystem that are ripe for disruption or collaboration? We asked MEF members to provide us with their thoughts on the big trends for 2017…

Waheed Adam, Chairman of iTouch Messaging, describes a rich-media messaging solution tailored to the African markets and describes the unique challenges and solutions facing businesses bringing these services to the region.

While Africa faces many technological challenges in terms of bandwidth and stable/affordable data and internet rates/services, improvements are being made and the technology ecosystem is getting better.

Just a few days before Mobile World Congress, Google announced plans to integrate RCS messaging in to new Android handsets. 27 mobile carriers and OEMs have agreed to make it their default-messaging app so that the newly christened ‘Android Messages’ will become a native feature of Android devices going forward.

Here, MEF member, Robert Gerstmann, MD for CLX Communications discusses the significance of the Google RCS announcement.

Robert also caught up with MEF TV at Mobile World Congress. See his thoughts from the show floor in the video below.

Ira Cohen, VP of Business Development and Marketing for MEF Member MMD Smart reflects on an eventful MWC 2017, and how the changes seen on the show floor reflect the ongoing evolution of the mobile industry.

“Is this really a mobile congress or is this the Detroit Auto Show?” was my first internal impression of MWC 2017. The dynamic changes from my first time at MWC 20 years earlier in Cannes, when it was still called the GSMA Conference, and even from many previous times attending MWC in Barcelona, are extraordinary.

Telecoming´s Head of UX, David Murillo explains why now more than ever, the user experience is critical to the mobile experience – plus, MEFTV speaks to CEO Cyrille Thivat about their business and the mobile ecosystem.
The latest Mobile World Congress portrayed that user behaviour patterns are one of the most requested insights when designing a customer journey. It’s the starting point of a journey towards achieving the main goal of mobile services: to provide users with a tailored consumer experience that meets his or her needs.

Deutsche Telekom’s Sea Hero Quest is no ordinary mobile game. It’s also a research tool, gathering data that helps scientists in the fight to understand dementia. This unique project won this year’s Meffy winner for Innovation in mHealth…

Dementia is on the rise. It is one of the most challenging medical issues of the era. Scientists have little understanding of where dementia comes from, how to stop it, or even how to detect its earliest signs.
And even though dementia affects 47.5 million people, research around it is limited. For every six research scientists looking into cancer there, is just one researching dementia.

Consumers in mobile first countries are desperately hungry for digital services. But they can be held back by the cost of data. Opera is tackling this with its Opera Max product, which has won the Innovation in Mobile First Markets Meffy for 2016…

It’s ironic that the countries where mobile is ‘first’ are generally the countries where mobile data is the most expensive (in real terms).

In its recent State of the Mobile Web report, Opera Software revealed that the average German can pay for 500MB with one hour of work.

Everyone is watching the development of chat bots and conversational commerce. US-based Kasisto is right at the heart of the space. It has launched its own banking bot and is helping others do the same. Kasisto won the 2016 Innovation in FinTech Meffy…
The financial services space is fascinated by chat bots. They seem to offer an enticing combination of the easy access of digital and the personal touch of the high street.
It’s why so many banks and card networks are experimenting with the concept. US-based Kasisto is helping most of them.

MEF Minute readers won’t need reminding that mobile is the most personal, universal and immediate of all media. People love this. Sadly, so do fraudsters, scammers and opportunistic marketers. As phone penetration has passed 100 per cent in many regions, unwelcome calls and texts have proliferated. Hiya Mobile says from January to May 2016, nearly 1.5 robocall complaints were submitted to the Federal Trade Commission in the US. Hiya offers...