To major media companies, the mobile channel represents a new way to reach and get to know their consumers. For the most part, however, mobile has remained an untapped channel for the media companies due to undefined business model, unproven profitability, and complex relationships. They have significant expertise in selling to consumers via print, TV, radio and the Internet, but selling directly to consumers in the mobile channel has remained a mostly elusive market opportunity for the media companies.

To established mobile content providers, the off-network business model has experienced growing pains as the market remains immature, and business processes non-standard and non-transparent. For these early market participants, the lack of standardized processes, business terms and policies; insufficient financial reporting; high error rates; lack of access to comprehensive reports and data; poor visibility into the customer experience; and slow receivables with low payout ratios have hindered profitability.

In order for media companies and content providers to establish a profitable mobile commerce business, the market must evolve and the following business requirements must be met:

• Optimized consumer experience. Easy purchase and superior care experience translate into increased revenues.
• Efficient business flow and standardized processes. It must be easy for media companies to establish and rollout new programs. Time-to-revenue is critical.
• Accurate and transparent reporting. To make marketing, pricing, and technical adjustments, media companies need accurate and timely reports to better manage their mobile business.
• Transparent and standardized business terms. Complex, one-off relationships makes the business inefficient. Standardized and transparent business terms allow for a more efficient marketplace and faster market growth.
• Faster payments. Media companies and content providers should be able to receive faster payments with accurate and transparent settlements report based on good performance history.
• More merchandising flexibility. To increase revenue, more sophisticated pricing and merchandising options should be available to improve consumer marketing.
• Reduced revenue leakage. Improved transaction and financial management is required in order to achieve profitability for all market participants.

OpenMarket removes the current market challenges, making it simple and profitable to leverage your brand and marketing expertise in the direct-to-consumer mobile environment.

OpenMarket is the first-ever financial system for the direct-to-consumer mobile commerce market. As the market matures and revenue opportunity increases, proper business controls and financial management becomes critical for all market participants.

With the easy-to-use system, you will be able to bring mobile campaigns and offers to market quickly, and create sophisticated pricing models and promotions—exactly the way you want. Access to Web-service self-administration and reporting allows you to manage your mobile content business 24x7.

Standardized and Efficient Business Model
OpenMarket offers a straightforward and transparent business model and set of policies so you know you are maximizing the revenue potential of the digital goods and services that you sell. The system keeps transactions costs low by using a simple, standardized and scalable pricing model with built-in performance incentives.

At the heart of this model is the OpenMarket Index (OMI), which is defined as the actual average operator cost for processing a transaction within a price band. OpenMarket uses the OpenMarket Index to calculate payout for all partner transactions at the end of each period (month). Media companies and content providers benefit by having a standard payout ratio across all mobile operators instead of complex per-operator rates. With OpenMarket Index, business terms and transaction fees are more transparent than ever to the media companies and content providers - making it easier to forecast revenues.