After the rise of the smartphone era, mobile has become a keyword. So a lot of mobile services have been launched and some of them are rapidly growing such as Pandora Radio.
But it is still an issue on how to make profit from the business.
What would be the final evolution of mobile services? Although it’s not easy to forecast, we can estimate that commerce and ads are the main model to make money from this industry through the examples of the internet world.
Some people have insisted that ‘internet of things’ will get a chance to boom up the pipeline business. But the concept is not very clear nor persuasive.
So far discussions and ideas have reached to a certain trend as follows:
Every service is moving to “Social-based Local Commerce”
– Foursquare accepts coupons under the partnership with Groupon.
– Groupon adds maps into its coupon service, the so called Groupon Now.
– Google is enforcing its POI by acquiring ZAGAT.
– Yelp also provides offers.
Although this trend doesn’t seem new and innovative, many players are pursuing for the trend. But the movement is on the go and no one knows how it will work.
Related Articles
1. foursquare and Groupon
http://mashable.com/2011/07/29/foursquare-groupon-partnership/
2. Google’s buyout of Zagat
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/08/us-google-zagat-idUSTRE7874JV20110908
3. Local Commerce
http://e1evation.com/2010/10/31/the-future-of-local-commerce-facebook-foursquare-yelp-groupon-outdoor/