Rovng app enables operators to use their roaming data to generate high margin travel-related revenue
Mobile World Congress: A new app is opening up opportunities for mobile operators to make money from the travel market as subscribers’ roam, from provider of analytics solutions for telecom business transformation, Mobileum.
Mobileum has announced its Rovng app that gives operators the opportunity to brand and market services from third party providers as well as themselves to travellers, based on Mobilium’s technology and cloud-based service provision. Building predictive insights derived from an operator’s data on the positioning of the end user, it opens up new revenue potential, in addition to those already secured from international roaming.
Whitelabel proposition, Rovng, uses Mobileum’s roaming solutions base across the world by complementing it with analytics taken throughout the lifecycle of a traveller’s journey, before, during, and after travel, and offers contextual content to the traveller compiled from an ecosystem of travel service providers.
Commented Avnish Chauhan, CTO and EVP, travel business at Mobileum, while mobile roaming is estimated by various sources to be a $50 billion to $55 billion market, travel is a $1.5 trillion market. He added, “That is a good chunk of money that mobile operators don’t see today, and now they have the opportunity to play in that space.”
Mobileum’s proprietary algorithms predict travel up to 40 days prior to departure with over 40% recall accuracy, and segments travellers based on their predicted purpose of travel. This creates an opportunity for the operator to be part of the booking flow earlier in the travel cycle, resulting in new revenue streams arising from digital advertising, premium placement, bookings, and even up-selling special roaming packs, claimed Mobileum.
Chauhan continued: “Operators always have 100% saturation in markets, so how do you grow?” He stated that there is continuing pressure on voice, data and roaming revenues, but that Rovng, “is a way for operators to generate money”.
He continued: “Mobile operators have no idea you’re travelling until you turn your phone on at your destination. While operators today generate revenues from traditional mobile voice and data roaming services, their share of the global travel pie only accounts for 2% of travel spend in comparison to big-ticket items such as flights. Yet the mobile operator is the only company [in the travel process]that actually knows where you are.
“If you’re able to predict travel, you’re able to insert the mobile operator into the centre of the travel process,” continued Chauhan.
