1. Context

One critical way to do this is through context. The Big Four want to monetize the massive amounts of data they have about customers, but in many cases they lack real-time context. Operators have that context and can export it via APIs on-demand.

Context brings real-time information to the mix, like location, presence, the type of device and connection a customer is using, whether they are roaming, details of their data plan, and whether they are moving or stationary. These details can contextualize offers and create the kind of intensely personalized, localized experiences and offers the Big Four wants to keep consumers bought-in to their services and to keep advertisers paying premiums for access to their audience.

2. Commerce

Another key piece of this equation is commerce: for revenue to be generated, sales must be closed and payments completed and secured. Operators have a history of facilitating trusted transactions, and have massively scalable billing and payments infrastructure to close the sales, payment, and collection loop for the Big Four. 

In particular, Direct to Mobile billing is a growing trend for buying digital goods and services, whether online (desktop or mobile) or within a mobile application. Research has shown that, compared with traditional payment methods such as credit cards, offering the mobile bill as a payment instrument can result in significantly higher conversion rates (due to the low-friction, “one-click” experience that direct-to-mobile enables) as well as a much broader addressable market (as direct-to-mobile billing can address anyone with a mobile phone, whether post-paid or pre-paid).

Direct to mobile billing is particularly well suited to in-application payments, which is significant at a time when “freemium” is fast becoming the pre-eminent business model for mobile applications. Application providers are increasingly relying on post-download payments to make money – i.e, users upgrading from the free to the premium version, or making in-application purchases of virtual goods, new levels within games, and so on.