Telecom Investment Research Note
Synposis
After a decade of Internet media we still haven’t cracked the business model – how best to make money from Internet-based content. There doesn’t seem to be a quick fix to the problem. Investors are starting to become worried about this, as they watch the various digital media companies, fixed and mobile telecoms companies, and the Internet media companies being affected by this. While advertising is currently the most utilised revenue source, this market also is limited in how far it can go in supporting the industry.
It is far more likely that totally new business models will need to be developed in order to monetise the various digital media developments. New broadband-based developments that provide open access models allow for totally new businesses to be developed parallel to the ‘free’ Internet. In such models the costs of infrastructure and services can be embedded in the end product, similar to current media models, where no additional charge is made for paper or for radio or broadcast access.
Permission-based models, where customers indicate what commercial (advertising, marketing) services they require, are another option.
