Trends in Mobile Internet Business

As 3G networks develop and smartphones become more popular, mobile Internet is gaining more momentum than PC Internet. Mobile Internet has brought about new mobile experiences, allowing people to check email, surf the web, stream videos, and post to social networking sites anywhere and at any time. Mobile Internet has penetrated into daily life and greatly changed the way we work and live. Internet business operation has completely changed. Mobile Internet is neither a simple duplicate of PC Internet nor a collection of web-based value-added mobile services. Diverse user demands have raised higher requirements on mobile Internet business operation.

User Experience

Mobile Internet is open and collaborative, like PC Internet, but it also inherits the realtime, privacy, convenience, and location features of mobile networks. In mobile Internet business, there are three main characteristics of user experience:

● Socialization. People demand Internet applications that go beyond simple information searching. They want interaction and participation, not just passivity. Socialization is an inevitable trend in mobile Internet business.  In recent years, microblogging has become popular in China. It is the trendiest social networking model for Chinese netizens. SNS brings users together around shared interests such as music, sports, movies and business. Microblogs are changing people’s social relationships.

● Localization. People can connect with others around them and can also keep abreast of news and information that is closely related to their daily lives. Websites such as Dianping, Groupon and OnCity have become popular because they cater to the needs of local people and retain them with local services. A person living in Nanjing can find out about sight-seeing, food, clothes, houses and transport in the city and can make local friends.

● Personalization. The core competitive advantage of mobile Internet is personalization. It is easy to offer personal services through mobile Internet. People’s need for customized services can be easily known and satisfied.

These three main characteristics need to be taken into consideration when creating outstanding mobile applications. ZTE’s mobile reader and e-game solutions are developed around these characteristics.

Browsers and Apps Coexist

In 2009, Apple launched its AppStore with hundreds of thousands feature-rich applications. The newest and most fun applications are current hot topics among both Apple and Android users. However, only about ten apps are commonly used. Therefore, apps do not mean everything to mobile Internet.

Browsers were once dominant in the early age of PC Internet, and there were quite few apps at that time. However, in the second stage of PC Internet development, clients became important. From 2004 to 2007, people had to install many software programs on a new PC. They returned to using a browser to access data after 2007, when main application browsers were supported. Video and in-game web browsers have found favor with users in recent years because special clients do not need to be installed. Today, mobile Internet is in a stage similar to the second stage of PC Internet, where there is an upsurge in the number of apps.

In the PC Internet era, browsers were the gateway for users to access the Internet. Many functions and applications could be accessed through browsers. In the wireless era, Apple has defined apps as the gateway to mobile Internet. These mobile apps give a different experience because mobile phones may be based on different operating platforms. To ensure consistent UE, a cross-platform application model has to be found for these apps. Middleware, VAC, and web widgets have arisen as a result. These have evolved in a way similar to that of browsers. HTML5 makes browsers as powerful and useful as mobile apps. As phones and browsers become more powerful, browsers and apps will coexist to meet diverse needs.

Facebook has planned to build its own web app system. It is reported that Facebook is secretly working on Project Spartan, based on HTML5, in order to get rid of the restrictions of Apple’s AppStore. ZTE has also been developing cross-platform applications. ZTE has worked out a solution for a unified client software platform and will further develop the browser-based application mode.

Innovation is the Key to Success

The rapid growth of mobile Internet has blurred the boundary between the upstream and downstream industry chain and has impacted the telecom business. Terminal vendors are transforming into content providers and virtual network operators, and Internet companies are expanding their roles as network operators and terminal vendors. Fierce market competition puts network operators at a disadvantage. Terminal vendors and Internet companies have adopted new business models that affect operator services such as voice and SMS. An innovative business model is the key to success. Relying on the traffic-based forward charging model, traditional telecom operators reaped huge profits from SMS and WAP. The backward charging model of search engine and advertising used by Internet companies has also proven to be a great success. What are successful business models in the mobile Internet era?

Apple’s iPhone AppStore is a successful business model. iPhone has been leading the smartphone market since its launch in June 2007. The success of iPhone can be attributed to its innovative business model as well as cutting-edge multiservice integrated design and unique UE.

Apple always partners with the largest local mobile operator to bundle its iPhone packages. The mobile operator is the exclusive local distributor of iPhone, and Apple gets a pre-agreed percentage of the revenue brought in by iPhone. With this revenue-sharing business model, Apple excludes other competitors in the market.  With its online iTunes app stores, Apple is changing rules in the mobile marketplace with a new revenue sharing model of user generated content (UGC) and user generated applications (UGA). Apple’s successful iPhone business model is a paradigm for mobile terminal vendors to establish themselves in mobile services, and its unique iTunes ecosystem is a reference for mobile operators.

ZTE is now developing China Unicom’s mobile reading base and WoStore application stores. ZTE is also developing China Telecom’s e-surfing factory and Jiangsu Telecom’s gaming services. Innovative business models are being used in these projects to push forward the development of mobile Internet.

Although the mobile Internet has not been fully developed, in the future, any service will be possible through mobile Internet and it will become the most convenient and widely used gateway in the information era. Innovation is the driving force for advancement in mobile Internet services. Faced with a promising mobile Internet market, ZTE needs to keep innovating to provide valuable application services for clients and to satisfy increasing user demands.