GSMA RCS Lab Recap - Mobile World Congress 2019

Hello everyone Derek Johnson with to tango comm it is Sunday, the day before Mobile. World Congress 2019. And I'm in Barcelona and in hotel I actually just got back from the GSMA, RCS lab. This, is the day before so Sunday and this is where a lot of industry. Insiders. Get together and they, present what's going on with RCS, how, many adoptions. Within, each carrier, there are and then there's a lot of demos. From providers. That. Do, RCS, so just a bunch of RCS, information, this RCS. Lab was, crazy, long it was 29. Different, speakers, I took. A. Ton. Of notes and I'm gonna try to go through this as quickly as possible one thing to note this. Is not every, single person that presented I'm sorry if I couldn't get to you a lot of them were really not that applicable to, brands, and brands are usually the ones watching, the video so, also. A few, of these they were so intense that I asked the speaker that if we could maybe later on Monday Tuesday Wednesday at, the actual conference review, the slides so I'll. Go through those as well and tell you when that's gonna happen I'm. Gonna be on mobile world congress Monday, Tuesday Wednesday I'm, gonna filming a ton of RCS, demos talking, to industry, people about RCS, adoption. You, know everything, that has to do with RCS, if you want to stay, up to date and follow, us be sure to subscribe on, our youtube channel follow. Me on LinkedIn I'm, pretty much everywhere on social media you can definitely find us again Derek, Johnson at to tango, comm, so. Let's start off with it first off GSM, a big. Props to them they continue to put on the GSMA. RCS labs. Which, help you know people understand, about RCS, and. The sponsor this time was mavin, ear so check them out so, interesting. When, he first got up there on stage from mavin ear he said, 2019. Is the year of RCS. That was kind of the theme of this RCS, lab and you're, kind of seeing it with a lot of people that. Were at this lab. They've, been at these labs for years, and maybe the first couple of years it wasn't that good no no adoption now. You're starting to see you, know on phones you can actually use, RCS now in the United States it's still very very low but. We're. Starting to kind of see the ball rolling, so that, was the theme 2019. Is the year of RCS, I think it's gonna be more 2020. 2021, once, you, get kind of up in that 20% adoption. Rate in the United States and maybe 30% in, 2023. But. Again that's, also the United States I focus, in the United States because that's where my customers are it was very interesting to hear people from like Africa. Or Egypt, and they're like Oh RCS, adoption, is going to be, 95. 98, percent, because, of the fact that everybody's, on Android over there nobody's, on iPhone at least that's what I was told in, the United States it's very, different and we have kind of a dual. System with Android, and iPhone. And maybe some other different types. Of devices that may or may not support, RCS, it's still up in there so I'm, gonna go through this it's, gonna be a long video but feel. Free to fast forward it but. I'll try to kind of hit the hit the highlights here and I'm fortunate I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna put the slides up I tried. To take as many photos maybe I'll post them so look in the comments I might post them there the, photos I took but, it was just there's too, much content, that happened, it was essentially like eight or nine hours of just RCS, content, so let's get into it number, one Vodafone, and 3c, interactive they, got up on stage they. Did a GSMA, demo so this is really cool GSMA, now, has its own RCS. Chat, bot which, makes sense because GSMA, is the one kind, of pushing RCS, forward, so.

It Makes sense that they now have their, own chat BOTS this was made in partnership. With 3c, Interactive, so, they got up there it was really cool to see kind of GSMA been. Touting, RCS, you, know for so many years and now actually, they can use RCS, to connect, with people at the, conference so they're. Going to be sending a series of nine mass, messages. This is cool because usually, people are talking about chat BOTS this, is actually a mass messaging. Campaign, for RCS, so there's gonna be nine mass, RCS, messages, that are gonna be going out throughout. The conference telling people where to eat where to go how. To pick up their badges stuff like that so that was really interesting, that was the first. Presentation, user these presentations. 15 minutes to 30 minutes and, I'm skipping a lot of their content, but I just want to get, through as much as I can then. You have Henry, from the GSMA, he, went through what. Are kind of the consistent. Slides every single time shows, the world then shows how many deployments, there are and then, it shows how many new deployments, there are and there. Are a ton of new deployments, United, States it's still slowly kind of getting there obviously. Better with the help of Google and AT&T and Samsung, and. I, will be talking about the adoption numbers, a little, later on so, that was the second one and I'm. Going to skip some people here three. This was really interesting from, a veneer you had Carlos, and his. Was very interesting, because you, know. A lot of people that watch these videos they look at it from the brand perspective, I'm Chipotle, I'm McDonald's, and, I want to send a an RCS. Message how much is it what the adoption rate is well, a lot of the people in this room are interested. In. Selling. RCS. Or providing, the tools and infrastructure, to the carrier's the wireless, carriers we're talking like AT&T, or, all, the carriers in in, the world and there's a lot of them so, this company mavin ear they sell a certain product and RCS product, to the wireless carriers, they, had, some interesting info which I found interesting. Which. They said and I'm. Reading from my notes here. They said that, carriers. Launching, RCS, on their own networks there were a few. Kind. Of drawbacks, or concerns. So to, tango we have you, know or brands, they have concerns. About RCS. And they bring them two to tango, well, mavin. Ear has carriers. That they work with the carriers bring them their concerns, this, was interesting because I usually don't get this kind of insight so. First, carrier, concern about RCS, is there's too many partners, or vendors, ecosystem. Is way too crazy, it's, just very complex, that's number one number two. This. Was interesting how to protect. The, SMS, revenue, stream the existing, SMS, revenue stream so a lot of these carriers they're, making a lot of money from, SMS. From, ATP. Or you, know PDA whatever they're doing a business, messaging. They're making a lot of money from, SMS. So, they're concerned, that hey if we add our, CS and we spend a ton of money doing it is, it just gonna cannibalize the, revenue that we're already making on SMS, great, question, number, three which was the third and final, one is. Its. Uncharted. Territory, for the wireless carriers they have concerns about spam. Privacy. Security, there's. Just a lot of stuff that they're unsure about, and, when.

They Go and look at maybe some of the bigger wireless carriers those. Carriers are just, as I'm sure as well so it's a hard thing to kind. Of get their head around so three, different things that mavin ear was, saying that, our issues for, the wireless carriers, so when mavin ear goes out and tries to sell a wireless, carrier on you. Know adding RCS to their suite. That's. What they're hearing back their sales team so that was interesting. Then. We had Vodafone. As this was interesting RCS. Is live in 14, markets, and they were clear which I really like, they were clear that 14. Markets is p2p. Person-to-person. Or, peer to peer it's essentially me texting, you me, is my person, on my company and then. They made it clear which I liked was, they have eight of those 14, markets, that are active, in a. 2p. Application. To person, so a computer, sending. Out a message so. That was great they, touted a lot of stuff click-through. Rates they said for the campaign's, that they're running for their clients Vodafone is interesting, because there's a carrier, but, then also they, provide software, and suite of tools for, brands, to actually use RCS, on Vodafone, so. They kind of straddle - they. Said click-through, rates are, up to. 13%. Higher. Then. I'm, guessing, SMS they didn't make it clear they just said you know click-through, rates are. 13%. Higher 13, times higher sorry not 13 percent 13 times higher. Again. I don't know what that is I'm guessing there they were, referencing, SMS, and you. Have to be aware it, they, said up to it's. Kind of marketing and sales speak you know yes, they have some people that have got up to. 13. Times the click-through rate so. I wouldn't expect if you launch in an RCS, campaign, in you're comparing an SMS you're going to get 13. Times better, click-through rate some, of your messages some campaign some brands some uses, will, get 13. Times, maybe who knows okay. And, then a. Lot. Of demos also I'm, gonna be filming a lot of these demos on the trade floor so I'm, not gonna talk about what the actual demo was until you can actually see it on video here. Then, we had Ron. From. Summit. He. Was, talking about enabling. Carriers. To add, stuff. In, addition, to kind of the basic, RCS features which we've highlighted on this this.

This, Channel, wherever you're watching it this, was really interesting because it is kind of far-fetched but, we saw some really interesting demos, where they, were putting. Into, RCS. Like, live video chat which. I thought was really cool so like retail, I could, fire. Up an RCS, message I could chat with them I could pick like sizing. And then I could pick you know I want to talk to a sales rep you, know I just click, and then within the, RCS, at least that's what it looked like within, the RCS, kind, of chat it. Actually, created, a live chat, with somebody at the, retail store that I could chat with that. Was pretty cool again not in the current specs but. It kind of showed the future, of where this could go which, was interesting. Okay. Then you had, mobile. Squared, so, mobile squared if you watch our videos they're, the ones that just release the number that. At the end of this year. 2019. Will. Be about in the United States about 17%, adoption. Of RCS. Business. Messaging, it's higher for. Non-business. Messaging. But, so, they have their research, firm out of the UK they, have a ton, of data and they. Have so much data that I was like scribbling, down every, little single. Just blew, my mind all the data, so. What I decide to do is I reached out to mobile. Squared they're going to be out of the conference and I said we need to review all of your slides they have like 10 slides, of just amazing, data so, be, sure you subscribe to our channel because I'm gonna be going through all of this, and it, is crazy, info, not about there. Is adoption, rate obviously in there but then there's about how. Much they think the, wireless, carriers, will make from RCS, you know if they're charging businesses. How much will aggregators, make what, is you. Know SMS, plus RCS, in terms of revenue how, much revenue will carriers, make per user, they have all this data which it was just completely, insane so stay, tuned for that information, they did a really good job and they've been a great friend. Of ours for giving us info, then. We had 3c interactive. It. Really interesting they did a bunch there, they've been really at, the forefront of kind of evangelizing. SMS. Jean Duffey the CEO, good friend he. Has, been at, every RCS. Lab pretty. Much from the start so. He has been really evangelizing. RCS. What, was great to hear from their company, and they did a couple demos and they'll do a couple demos on the tradeshow which hopefully will get on video. They said, brands. Are waiting for and, if you're a brand drop. A comment below and tell me if this is correct, number one reach, an adoption make, sense in the United States where maybe less, 10%, 5%. Adoption. Rate maybe the end of this year will be about 17%. That's. Number one reach, an adoption there needs to be more customers. For, brands to be interested, in RCS, number, two pricing, model I've talked about this on video we need a pricing, model a brand. Can't evaluate anything without price, and then, number three this was interesting because I really haven't talked about this and I don't hear this that, much but it's, interesting to hear from 3ce interactive, that they do is, brands. Want the same experience. On. Different. Handsets and different, carriers, so essentially, they're, saying 3c. Interactive is saying that when they talk to brands about RCS, there's, three things the brands want reach. Pricing. Model and then, kind, of, consistency. Of experience, which, makes sense the consistency. Of experience. If you're on a t-mobile phone it should look completely, different than if you're on an AT&T phone, so. Really great feedback and. Great information, from 3ce interactive really. Out in speaking, to kind. Of the crowd because the crowd there is really trying to sell RCS.

To. The brands and, that really helps getting their feedback. Okay. Got, a couple more. Great. Deutsche Telekom they did some great demos but, we're gonna see those later, on in the week on the video oh, then. We had Google so, Google, they, announced, that they have two hundred and sixty channel, partners, these are people that can. Run RCS, messages, on their network, they are live in North America was 60 public. Brands. Using RCS, so this includes US Canada, and Mexico so, 60. Plus. Brands. In us can in Mexico are already. Using. RCS. Through. Google that's pretty cool, because, years ago it was zero so we're. Definitely seeing, you. Know kind of the rise of RCS, whether it's you know Samsung, 18 to Google, everybody. Is kind of you. Know using, RCS, touting RCS putting, some brands on it a lot of them are demos. Or tests. But. It's great to see that 60. Brands. Have already kind of registered, and are live with. An RCS. Messaging. Campaign, and then. At. The last portion. The Google presentation, they, are, announcing, a new tool it's, called RBM, rich. Business, messaging, is the same as I think it's the same is RCS, I think we as an industry need to come together and say there's only one kind of acronym, but. They, called our BM. Developer. Console, which, essentially. Is kind of like a WYSIWYG editor that, allows normal. People like myself and marketers, to, go in and create. RCS. Chatbots. I'm not sure if it's live yet but they did announce that it was coming and it's a new -. Okay. This, was really cool there was a company, there I don't know if it's a company might be a non-profit it was called turn, tu. RN, this. Had really nothing to do with kind, of what we do here at - tango but they. Run. SMS. Chatbots. Essentially. In. Countries. Where, maybe medical access, is less. Than kind of the United States or Canada or UK and, they. Essentially, sign, up Mother's. And text. Them information, and. Mothers, can text them back during pregnancy, and, essentially. Kind of help the mother through the process, and. It. Was very interesting to see their demo it, was more interesting to see the evolution from SMS, to RCS. And. RCS. And all, the, other different channels they're on like Facebook and, whatsapp and, all the you know all, the different OTT. Messaging. Solutions. It was very interesting to see that. Kind. Of the ability. To help these women really. Increased. As the technology. Increased, you, know from just an SMS to really these rich kind of messaging, solution. So they, were super, excited about our, CS and OTT, and just rich messaging, in general and to help all these women. Then. You, had a cm they. Were. Interesting, because they, had a couple demos and they. Were kind of explaining their solutions. But. Was interesting about them is they. Gave feedback kind, of like 3. C interactive, did they could they gave feedback. About, how, their, salespeople, are, overcoming. Some. Of the hurdles, that they're, kind. Of having. To jump over during. The sales process for, RCS, messaging, so. What they found and what was interesting they threw out a couple things they were the ones that did the booking.com, demo. You can search for that in YouTube you'll see our video they. Have sent. Since. Yeah. Since starting. RCS. At cm, calm. They've, sent, 24mm. RCS. Messages, now, they're an international, company, so a lot of those I bet our international, messages, but it's pretty cool 24. Million, RCS. Messages, since. They. Started using RCS, messaging, so. Then back to that difficulty. Of selling, RCS, which I think, high tides into, the, adoption, rate and everything that we're hearing I think. What's happening, is RCS. Is so cool but. You. Can't really demo it on a customer's. Phone because the chance that a customer, in the United States has the right phone and the right network and. The right RCS, you know version. It's, very unlikely at this point so, what they were finding, is that video, works, really, really well to help the sales process make. Sense now not these kind of videos I thought they were gonna say that but, they didn't they were talking about essentially filming. The, phone in the RC axis experience, for the brand and then sending, the video to them, and saying hey here's what it looks like, made. Sense and, really I think that's because, of, the fact that. You. Know consumers, and marketers. They, can't really most the time access, RCS, on their phone so it's. Kind of useless unlike, SMS, and MMS SMS. We send demos all the time or like hey just text you know join two one two three four five oh you see it okay good here's. The video here's an image okay, great you, know they're doing it on their phone but because of the option rate there's. Just not that made ours yes so that's one thing that I thought was a really cool sales hack for people that are selling RCS. Then. You had a live, person. This. Is a company, that is a public company it's really cool to have their CEO, speaking.

They. Are, really. Excited, about RCS, because they are really heavily invested, in OTT. Messaging, like Apple. Business chat, which actually was the first time anybody in that conference, or session, mentioned. Apple business chat they're into, facebook Messenger whatsapp, they. Are. Just, yeah, so this, was interesting half of all Apple. Business clients. Run, on live person. Live person, they were the ones that originally. Started. Website, chat so you can text back in or not tax but like type on your computer, and obviously. With. Technology, mobile phones and messaging, they're starting to move more towards kind. Of these messaging, applications, OTT, I don't. Think that, they're currently, running any RCS, campaigns. But. They, have really. High. Aspirations. For RCS, because they see it as a just another channel, in, addition to Apple business chat facebook Messenger whatsapp, and then. They have this really cool which, I'm still kind of learning about hopefully, I'll get more information, this maven, product, and. It's. Really interesting because it, throws it back almost like 10 years to kind of like the for info days if you're part of the industry you know what that company was we're for info, they. Started, and it was supposed to be kind like a search, engine via. SMS, so I'd text in hand looking for a car or I'm, looking for a place to eat tonight and then, they would send back results. And they had monetized, those results, well, it's interesting because live person, has like 20,000. Brands are using their platform for. Customer, support and chat, bot type things and now. They're saying is hey. You, know carriers, AT&T t-mobile. International. Carriers, why don't you white label, this thing we call maven, and you. Could I'll just use an example 18, T 18, T could have their own just, call it 18, T super. Chatbot and the, super chat bot would, be installed on everybody's, phone and 18, T customers, could text into the super chat bot and could. Say, like hey I'm looking for you, know a restaurant, tonight then. A live person respond, back and do, some kind of due, diligence and, figure out kind of vetting like what are they looking for where are they and then. What's very interesting is, the high person, would then essentially. Kick them or, push them to. The. Like let's say it's a pizza place the. Pizza place that they recommend, it, would push them to that pizza place, there are CS chat BOTS so. 18 t hypothetically. Would, have this, chat, bot. That, would be branded themselves but it would be a maven product. Which is from my person, they. Would. You. Know send that traffic, then, to, the branded, chat bot for the actual brand, really. Interesting, some interesting business models there as you can imagine because, of the conversion, you're essentially, sending.

You Know, consumers. To a brand, which is exactly what Google does which is interesting because Google, is in the room everybody's. Trying to monetize this right now it, was an interesting. Kind. Of revenue, stream and model which I I haven't. Seen but I have seen like ten years ago but the technology, wasn't there during for info because it was just SMS, and at the start I don't think you could even click on the links in a text message that's how old I'm getting. Ok. That was a live, person and I'll get more info hopefully we can see some demos from, that and, then. We had a Neil, from AT&T, he. Was showing all the, the. Chat box directory so if you have a. Samsung. Device on, the AT&T network a new Samsung, device like the galaxy, s 9 hopefully. The Galaxy S 10 in a little bit you. Will see that there, is now a chatbot, directory, so kind of like an app, directory. On like. An iPhone there's, now a chatbot. Directory, there's about 20 different brands in there and you can kind of interact with them it's all powered by RCS. He, was telling us there, was some very interesting data, from that. One. Of the interesting pieces, of data was, the swing, between. Interactions. Consumer, interactions, how many interactions, per session eight consumers, doing with, a chat bot on. Average. I'm pretty sure I have this right on average is about 3.5. Replies. So back and forth with a chat bot 3.5. Times there was huge out layers or, outliers uh where. People, were interacting like hundreds, of times per session but, most of them were kind of in that middle so it's definitely kind of a bell curve but, really, steep in. The middle and what. Was interesting though is he. Was laying out news entertainment. I, think, something else like an AI chat, bot and it, really had. A significant. Difference between how. Many interactions. Each. Category. Of chatbot. Had, so, the 3.5, is the average but, some were like up in the I think like tens, or 50, you know session, or replies. Per session some were very low like news was very low AI like, a chatbot like you're chatting and playing games of somebody that, was very high that, was very interesting, also. The. Graph of the amount of phones. And people that, are seeing this chat bot director who was room. Right up into the right right. Now it's, about 16. Million. Uniques. I think our customers 18. T customers, are visiting, the, chat bot directory, per month 16, million, about. A half a million per day that, are going, into the directory, so, huge. Chance for exposure for brands to be in that directory. And. Kind of changes things because up until maybe, the chat bot directory, the majority, of messaging. Was outbound, it, wasn't discoverable. Unless you went into the retail store and opted in now, it, it is becoming discoverable. With, things like Beatty and T chat, bot directory, maybe live person, all. These different things that people are coming up with they're, making chat, BOTS and and messaging, discoverable. Which means the consumer, can, discover it without the brand kind of pushing it on them. Okay. Then. We had a Virgin, Trains Virgin, Trains I'm pretty. Sure was the first RCS. Deployment. By a brand, they, do some really cool stuff what was interesting about this one they started, with SMS, way, back in the day for essentially. If you live in Europe or you've been in Europe you know you look up at the board and the. Minute it says hey you need, to go to track four everybody. Rushes, there well essentially they built an SMS system that. You. Know families, and the disabled, and, elderly they. Would get a text message before. It. Went up on the board so then they wouldn't get trampled, and it, worked really really well people loved in then they started staggering, kind of alert so you know people would know, you know went aboard and they they went all just rush at the same time what. He, was super. Kind. Of excited about was. The. Evolution, of. Messaging. To RCS and then how much more they, can include. In, the, message so, right now with. The SMS version it's just a track, for go, there yeah, that's pretty much it then, RCS, went oh here's. You know a map of the Train here's where your seat is and then in the future they listed, all the stuff that they're gonna be doing in adding, tars yes hey. You want to upgrade you, know while you're walking. To the Train why don't you upgrade. Payments. Oh they had a list, of just stuff, that they were gonna do with RCS, which, really they couldn't do with SMS, so. Really great example, from Virgin, Trains that's. In the UK and, then. There, was number, a I, they.

Did An interesting presentation. About how, the carrier's, and how. Software. Providers, should be looking at the pricing, model it, was really interesting because, they were. Essentially. Referencing. How, companies. Like whatsapp, and facebook. Messenger how they're starting to monetize, in saying hey guys you, know these companies like whatsapp Facebook messenger. WeChat. They. Are, really getting this right by giving. Away a lot of free stuff and, then, getting, adoption. And then, starting. To charge for premium, features, so, this would be for. Example. Hey. Maybe you can send a free, message. But. If you want to include video you got to pay a little more if you want to include the. Ability to add. A calendar reminder, or if, you want to connect to an AI chat, bot so you can like understand natural language you, have to you know pay a little more that. Was kind. Of what, he was saying but it was, interesting just to hear the different kind of pricing, models. Again. What's. Kind of frustrating, is there, is no pricing model yet there's three different pricing, models but there's no actual price for, each model, so. He was kind of saying hey guys here maybe we. We don't charge for the first little bit and then we gain adoption, then we start charging a recharge for premium features, I think he maybe opened up a few. People's minds that are just, so dead, sat on from day one we're gonna be charging one cent and it's gonna be one cent it. Was kind of interesting to hear his perspective. On. What has worked for companies like whatsapp and OTT, messaging. Okay. That was it that, was 29, presenters, some of them I'd include because they're more kind of carrier-based they don't really doesn't, really matter for brands, there were a few demos like from AccuWeather, that. Were very heavily. Graphical. Which doesn't. Make sense if I'm talking on video here I will try to get you guys the slides as soon as possible, and tomorrow. And Tuesday. And Wednesday we will be filming at Mobile, World Congress 2019. We'd be talking with SMS, marketing companies. Aggregators. Carriers, and then we'll be filming RCS, demos because I know everybody's super excited to see all these demos I heard there's like 20, or, 30 plus demos, that are going on during the conference so we will be busy be sure to subscribe on, YouTube, follow, us on LinkedIn, subscribe. To our email list whatever. You want to do to get our videos because we're going to be posting as much as we can and then after the conference we'll start releasing those videos if. You are at mobile cars 2019. Be sure to say hi and again, my name is Derek Johnson with to tango comm and this has been a recap, the, GSMA, RCS. Lab. That, happened on Sunday, before Mobile. World Congress 2019.

In Barcelona.

2019-02-28 17:13

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