Is this the beginning of the end for mobile subscriptions?
Monday, July 28th, 2008Anyone who watched music TV in the UK back in 2005 will remember an endless stream of ringtone ads apparently interrupted by the odd Justin Timberlake video. They were strange days. In fact, the biggest ringtone seller of them all, Jamster, spent more on TV ads that year than Marks & Spencer.
But 2005 also marked the beginning of the end of the mobile subscriptions boom as tough legislation limited the ability of the dodgier companies to mis-sell subs and gave consumers an easier get-out. Quite right too. Mobile content is a legitimate business, but it was being dragged through the mud by so much bad practice.
In the intervening years, the market recovered and now – thanks to WAP billing and the entry of mainstream brands into the off-portal space – it’s thriving again. All of which makes this week’s news that the European Commission and the UK regulator PhonePayPlus are preparing renewed action to tackle abuses by ‘rip-off’ ringtone vendors pretty depressing.
It seems the bad practice has not disappeared. Alarmingly, the EC found 466 cases to answer when it investigated 500 websites. And PhonePayPlus revealed 4,500 complaints in the first three months of 2008 alone.
We’re right behind them. To be honest, zamano has been caught up in these kinds of complaints before. Aggregators – often the point of contact between consumers and content vendors – are invariably tainted by such scandals. So any action to curtail bad practice is fine by us. zamano is a reputable company. We want all our partners to be the same.
