Monday, October 17, 2011

The Premium SMS and RBT Industry, What's Up? [Tweet Collection]

These are a number of tweets I collected from a string of tweets I made last Saturday, bookmarked here.

Exquisite Tweets from @barijoe


Collected by barijoe




Ringbacktones have made snippets of music into status messages on your phone. Don't blame the technology.

#1 [x]11:56pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




RBT as a commercial business can exist as a viable music revenue channel alongside other more traditional methods.

#2 [x]11:57pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




if someone says RBT is a degradation of music; well does music have to be enjoyed by only traditional methods, and traditional durations?

#3 [x]11:58pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




and if someone is tying the alleged "degradation of music" to RBT, well that's just being snobbish.

#4 [x]11:59pm Oct 14th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




RBT just enabled us to know how many music fans there are, and what kind of music they like. Market realities.

#5 [x]12:00am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




and RBT has its own segment that enjoys it. So do CDs, digital downloads, and so on. It's still a recorded music product.

#6 [x]12:01am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




it's never been a secret that music tastes vary, and that the majority of people will look for easily accessible music. RBT is no different.

#7 [x]12:13am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




for instance: generally, more people would like Westlife rather than Herbert von Karajan. Unfortunate (for some) fact of life.

#8 [x]12:16am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the pop music phenomenon will not go away, catering music to the masses. RBT is yet but one medium of delivering that music.

#9 [x]12:16am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




This weekend, telcos, CPs and labels are working hard to save the RBT industry they had built, from an ignorant Indonesian government.

#10 [x]12:17am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




Yesterday BRTI issued a letter that all premium SMS services, most likely including RBT, must be shut down.

#11 [x]12:19am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




But BRTI also said that all services may resume; subscribers can re-register to the services they want with no additional cost. RBT also.

#12 [x]12:20am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




Think of it as a "system reboot": getting rid of users that may have inadvertently subscribed to a service, but keeping the 'real' customers

#13 [x]12:22am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the premium SMS and RBT industry is not dead just yet - but they'll have to work hard on getting back those customers again.

#14 [x]12:24am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the premium SMS & RBT industry is not without its own 'bad boys'; the guys behind the recent 'stolen phone credit' fiasco.

#15 [x]12:32am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




and the order to shutdown all premium SMS services, will cost millions of $ in loss of customers, definitely.

#16 [x]12:36am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




here's the tough question: how many are real customers, and how many were "trapped" via marketing/technology methods?

#17 [x]12:38am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




my opinion: if customers love any service, they will keep using it. If they don't, they won't. Right, @yonan32 ? :D

#18 [x]12:41am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




and the funny thing about selling any service, is that you'd hear the complaints more often than you hear the praises. Same applies here.

#19 [x]12:46am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




but in all fairness, Indonesia's troubled SMS industry has had more than its share of bad press. Time for a reset.

#20 [x]12:49am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




BUT - the commoditization of recorded music - RBT, MP3, CD - is only one aspect of the music industry.

#21 [x]12:57am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




Recorded music as a commodity is also one of the reasons the music industry has grown so much over the years.

#22 [x]12:58am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




sure there are many ways for musicians to make music, but that also means, if the RBT industry were to stop, it's a big problem.

#23 [x]1:01am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the SMS/RBT industry is not without problems. But doesn't mean an industrywide shutdown is necessary.

#24 [x]1:09am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the government is taking the easy way out with the "system reboot". We'll just have to see on whether they will support the industry itself

#25 [x]1:11am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the SMS/RBT industry was self-regulated by the telcos. It should have been regulated (and incentivized) by the government.

#26 [x]1:14am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




so we'll just have to see, how things play out next week. We'll see, eventually, how many people actually do use RBT.

#27 [x]1:17am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the approximately IDR 60 billion/week RBT industry will most likely shrink. Will it follow the fate of the premium number?

#28 [x]1:20am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the 'premium call' industry virtually died when 10 years ago after similar outrages from consumers regarding overcharging.

#29 [x]1:22am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




The fear is that the RBT industry will be a casualty of war, of a battle that is actually from overcharging premium SMS services.

#30 [x]1:24am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




so if the SMS/RBT industry were to die a slow death starting today, there are real casualties: the employees of these companies. I was one.

#31 [x]1:26am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




for better or worse, I played a very small part building the RBT industry in Indonesia, so it is sad to see things the way they are today.

#32 [x]1:28am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




the only problem is, with this imminent SMS/RBT industry shutdown, why aren't we hearing the consumers complaining about the shutdown?

#33 [x]1:35am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




we'll see, if the shutdown happens, if whether there will be consumers complaining that their services have been involuntarily shut down

#34 [x]1:38am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac




so, perhaps it's time to rethink music services.

#35 [x]1:38am Oct 15th 2011 via Twitter for Mac

1 comment:

  1. [...] this article was written months before the premium SMS and RBT debacle, but the points of this article remain relevant. Thanks to @AdibHidayat for letting me republish [...]

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