The gift of mobile

‘Tis the season for gifting and Christmas lists a mile long. But what to do if someone’s list includes a Tetris download for their cell phone, or a new ringer from Chingy?
Some wireless carriers and mobile virtual network operators are seeking to make it easier for customers to buy content for one another and open the door to more content consumption-and new revenue. Although the practice has not gained a great deal of traction yet, it could become common in the next year or two.
MVNO Helio L.L.C., which offers its subscribers features dubbed “gifting” and “begging,” is anticipating a bump in content sales as its youthful demographic turns to its mobile phone for virtual stocking stuffers.
Charity begins at home
As Helio users browse content via their handsets, one of the standard options is the ability to “gift” the game, graphic, or what-have-you. Subscribers type in the phone number of a friend’s Helio device and can include a short note, and then the cost of the content is added to the gifter’s account. For begging, users can send a message to a friend that contains a link to their preferred content.
Earlier this year, Helio Chief Executive Officer Sky Dayton said that about one-third of the games that Helio users downloaded were gifted or begged.
Sprint Nextel Corp.-on whose network Helio operates-also recently began offering a “gifting” option. Sprint Nextel customers can purchase ringers, screen savers, themes and games and send them to other customers through the company’s new Digital Lounge section of its Web site, which allows users to browse, preview and buy content for themselves or others. The Web site option of gifting works much like Helio’s: type in a Sprint Nextel phone number and a quick message, then send off the virtual stocking-stuffer. Music and call tones are not able to be gifted, according to the company, because they are provided through Sprint Nextel partners.
Chris Chuang, vice president of strategic development for Motricity Inc., noted that the idea of purchasing content for other people has been around for awhile, with an early version available through the former AT&T Wireless Services Inc. But he says that the time of widespread gifting of content and content coupon strategies probably isn’t far off.
“I think that it’s kind of in an early stage,” Chuang said. “That probably will be true through at least the first half of 2007. Toward the end of 2007 and 2008, we’ll begin to see more of this.”
Part of the lag, he said, is that “a lot of users barely know what a ringtone is, still. If you get gifted [content], that assumes that you actually like mobile content, you know what it is and you know how to download and install it to your phone.”
In this case, companies like Helio can take advantage of their younger, tech-savvy subscriber base. But for large carriers, Chuang said, “it’s just lower on the priority list, and that’s probably a function of the belief that . there is lower-hanging fruit in terms of driving revenue.”
He also said that the straight gifting of content is likely to be more widely adopted, since it taps into a “more natural human paradigm,” and a model that people are already using on the Internet as they send virtual gift certificates and actual gifts to one another. Begging, he said, may take the form of wish lists in much the same way that Amazon.com lets guests make a registry of items they would like, and either share the list or keep it to themselves.
Other carriers and MVNOs have gone the gift card route for content. Cingular Wireless L.L.C. sells gift cards that stock up a balance which can be used to buy content. So instead of parents sighing when a new ringtone gets tacked on to the family bill, they can supply the gift card and let little Suzie use that to get her Justin Timberlake fix.
Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C., is tapping into another impulse of the holiday season: the urge to help the less fortunate. Next week, the carrier plans to launch a program that allows users to text a short-code to a number, with the result being that a piece of clothing is donated to a needy teen. The MVNO also is donating 5 percent from all content sales, plus some popular songs and content have 100 percent of the profits going to Virgin Mobile USA’s Re*Generation partners, Youth Noise and Stand Up.