Evolution or De-Evolution of Contents Business

Content is king. These words are uttered almost like a prayer in the content industry. But how far is this true? Recent studies show that freemium apps are the most profitable at the moment while people tend to shy of upfront purchases or paid apps.

Truth be told i hate freemiums, I find them utterly annoying. Why can't i pay for a full featured app without being hit by a plethora of DLC/IAPs? And to the most part the IAPs are designed in such a drug addictive way to get you to keep on buying more. In other words the content industry has successfully digitized cigarettes, liquor, drugs and other addictive substances. If the freemium portion is intended as a teaser / demo and IAP unlocks the full app then thats fine. But to the most part this is not the case.

But that is just apps..They will continue to stay relevant as long as smartphones are.What about other contents based services ? It seems like 2014 is seeing another year of declining of service related contents. With rising costs left right and center, consumers seem to be inclined to terminate recurring based contents services either permanently or by opting to cheaper options that offer better value for money. Although not representing the entire market i am seeing many of my friends opting to terminate cable TV subscription in favor for Broadband services that are packaged with seemly less attractive IPTV based services.

And it looks like its even worst on the mobile front. Ringtones are now becoming increasingly irrelevant with users opting to use manufacturer preloaded tones instead. Consumers are also seemingly terminating other recurring value added mobile contents services entirely. If the first 2 weeks of 2014 are any indicator of the direction of the contents business, in Malaysia at least, it will be a very challenging and interesting year indeed. Unless major changes are made in terms of marketing contents, its only going to spiral down.

What can be done? Can anything be done? I believe further droppings are inevitable but there is still hope for the mobile content service business to survive another year. Promoting services is no longer the right way of doing business. A great marketing tactic was done last year by a local telco (though i am not entirely sure of the results) was the education of the usage of the contents itself compared to the promotion of a service. By educating a user on the availability of the technology and how it benefits them would incline them to subscribe to services more naturally then promoting and getting then to subscribe to services they do not know how to use at all. For example .. educating the user on the usage of AUX / Bluetooth technology to play digital contents on their home entertainment systems and car radios would give them more reasons/purpose to purchase & download digital music compared to say .. just trying to push them digital music on their mobile. This in-turn could help stimulate unlimited music packaged services take-up

Of course this comes down to marketing :)