Last Saturday in Money Weekend we discussed the growing trend toward streaming services in the Australian market.
That got an interesting follow up this week when Channel Ten launched its latest digital strategy alongside the reboot of its catch up service ‘TENplay’.
TENplay will allow you to watch most Channel Ten shows on demand, along with a bunch of other nifty features.
That was just one of the developments this week that are set to change the way we watch TV, buy products and spend our money…
Ten chief digital officer Rebekah Horne is behind the development of TENplay. An interesting point she made to the Australian is her belief that the small size of the Australian market means it can only support two major streaming players.
Last week we pointed out Channel Nine, Seven West Media, Foxtel and Quickflix all have plans to tap into this market in one way or another. Offshore players Netflix and Hulu are considering it as well. Add Channel Ten and you have a very competitive landscape.
But it gives you an idea of the ‘internet everywhere’ theme we’ve explored in Money Weekend lately. TENplay will be available on mobiles, tablets, game consoles and smart TVs. In fact, one feature is the ability for the user to navigate between different devices while watching the same program.
But it’s not just free to air TV that’s evolving thanks to the digital revolution. The car industry is too. In this case, as reported by the Australian Financial Review, it’s the success of Subaru selling its BRZ sports car exclusively online, direct from the manufacturer. The AFR: ‘Its success highlights the potential for low cost retailing that may change the way we buy cars.‘
For the moment this trend is for fleet buyers, not retail. But it’s already changing the business model of dealerships. One of those changes will be a shift into greater investment in creating virtual showrooms to attract buyers researching online. From the AFR again: ‘The digital age is the tipping point, and we will see the biggest changes to hit dealerships in the past 50 years.‘
Research shows retail buyers prefer to search online but make personal contact by visiting a dealership to close the sale. Online behaviour like this is why companies spend so much money on research. It’s enabled Facebook to find another lucrative way to tap into consumers’ online behaviour.
The Financial Times reported this week that Facebook is expanding its offering of mobile ads to cash in on app makers and retailers. Apparently two thirds of people who download a mobile app only open them between one and ten times. The challenge for companies is to get users to keep using the app.
According to the FT:
‘Retail and e-commerce companies such as Target, eBay, and HotelTonight, an online booking site, have used the ads to get people to download their shopping apps. The new ads will allow them to entice shoppers back to the app for a product promotion or 24 hour sale.’
Facebook can help them do this and make a growing, tidy stream of revenue. But the company will be really cashing in if it can dominate the payments market. That’s the idea behind its latest launch, ‘Autofill for Facebook’.
Revolutionary Tech Investor analyst Sam Volkering gave us his take this week:
‘Essentially you store card details in Facebook’s platform, which means when you go to shop on your mobile, instead of buggering around with fiddly card numbers, cvc’s and actual cards, you just tap on ‘Autofill with Facebook’ and bang, your card details are in and you can check out. And if you think no one would give their card details to Facebook…the 20 million per day users of Candy Crush Saga and the 8 million per day users of Farmville 2 will disagree with you. And if you think those users don’t pay for games, try over $1 billion in total revenue from Farmville and over $850,000 per day from Candy Crush.‘
The big banks are hustling to develop their technology platforms, and their priority is mobile devices. Take this from The Age this week:
‘In a speech to the Trans Tasman Business Circle last month, Westpac CIO Clive Whincup said the convergence of mobility, digitisation and social media had "radically shifted the balance of power, placing the customer in control".‘
It will also mean bank branches will become much more tech-orientated, with fewer staff.
The Age article suggests that the number of financial services organisations engaging customers through mobile devices is expected to grow to 92 per cent within five years.
The way Sam sees it, Facebook and the other big tech companies are making online payment easier and stand to take a chunk of the market off the established banking system by cutting them out of the process.
Kris Sayce and Sam over at Revolutionary Tech investor have one niche payments company on the buy list. Arguably, that potential is priced into the big players like Google, Facebook and eBay. And the big banks won’t be easy to dislodge with their massive resources, either.
But there are different angles to the same idea. Another way to play it is to consider online security. Who can profit by making your mobile transactions, accounts and networks secure?
As mobile banking and payments get bigger and bigger, this will be a trend to follow.
Callum Newman+
Editor, Money Weekend
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