TM Forum ‘Vibe’: A match made in data?

NICE, France – As operators and over-the-top players start to find ways to work together instead of competing against each other, many new models will likely emerge. At this week’s TM Forum Live event I experienced OTT Connect, and I’m honestly not sure if this is really cool or would make feel like I was being “watched” and “classified.” You’ll have to decide for yourself.
In short, a customer opts in to this program to receive advertisement when they log into their phone in return for perks and to be identified based on their online social media profiles. An ad is presented by the operator and then you swipe – left is a no go, right is interesting – think Tinder. Over time it will become self-learning so that you no longer receive ads in the categories you don’t like and the focus is on the categories you do like. In return for allowing the advertising, you receive perks from your operator – could be free services or minutes or partner offers.
This is all fine, but then the classification comes into play. Based on your online social media profile and your usage and purchases from your operator, you are now classified in order to determine the types of offers that will be presented to you. Some of the things that are considered are items such as your age range, sex, voice usage, data usage, device and what you follow and like on social media. There is quite a range of categories you can fit in to with a percentage as to how well you fit each category assigned.
For the operators this is great for additional revenue opportunities and the ability to reach prepaid customers and try to convert them into subscription based customers. For OTT players this is great as they can benefit from the wealth of knowledge and customer base of the operators. As a user, I don’t know. As I said I’m not sure if this is cool or makes me uncomfortable. Of course you opt in, but it still bothers me that I Google something and 20 seconds later I get an ad for it on Facebook.
The service is currently live in a proof of concept in Malaysia.