Eric Mauskopf, Business Development, YouTube

Eric Mauskopf, Business Development, YouTube is delivering the opening keynote on Day Two of the Broadband LATAM conference, taking place on 2 – 3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about his role at YouTube, what he’s working on right now and what YouTube plans are for future growth.

First up, what excites you most about your role at YouTube?

I was fortunate to join YouTube at the beginning of our mobile efforts, when we were working with operators to bring video to phones. We did not lack for sceptics, but we worked hard and delivered an engaging video experience that users could enjoy at home or on the go. People watch more than 25 per cent of all YouTube videos on their mobile device, and this number keeps growing. YouTube’s device partnerships will be a catalyst for even more users to experience YouTube in the years to come.

I believe we are playing a key role in changing how the world is informed and entertained. With more than seven billion people on earth, only two billion have ever accessed the internet, and only one billion have smartphones. Our device efforts are the likely means of reaching those people who have not yet had access to internet services. As the past years have shown us, once you give people access to information and commerce, they innovate in ways we could not have expected and end up changing the world.

What’s the tech gadget that you can’t live without at the moment?

My smartphone has become an integral part of my everyday life but I think the real question for me is what apps can’t I live without? There are probably ten apps I depend upon throughout the week. One of my favourite new apps is “Get It Now”, which matches customers who’d like to have an item delivered with couriers and bike messengers who have the free capacity to deliver this item. I tend to use it for delivering food from my favourite San Francisco restaurants that haven’t arranged their own delivery service.

What cool new things are you working on right now?

Over the past year, I helped incubate a new business focused on cross platform multi-screen experiences, the YouTube app on your smartphone or tablet can automatically pair with the YouTube experience on your SmartTV. This enables seamless sharing of content through our “send to TV” feature, selecting videos on your mobile screen that you’d like to view on your connected TV screen, while using your mobile screen for command and control or queuing up the next video to watch.

Where are the most promising opportunities for growth for YouTube in the next couple of years?

The majority of my attention is focused on leading our emerging market device partnership efforts, where a tremendous number of users are coming online for the first time, and primarily doing so on mobile devices.  Working with operators and device manufacturers to enable a good YouTube experience from day one of a user’s internet exposure is key to this mission. With 72 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, content discovery is of utmost importance. Depending on the region and language, different YouTube content will be more relevant to those users. Whether it’s a feature phone, smartphone, tablet, or connected TV, we want to surface the content users’ care most about to the screen closest to their eyes.

YouTube has increased its focus on monetising content in recent years? Would you explore models that would remove in-video advertising for consumers?

Today, there are more than one million channels generating advertising revenue on YouTube. Our goal is to give video creators more flexibility to monetise and distribute their content to reach the fan communities that made their channels a hit, including our recently announced plans for a self-service subscription model.

My TV, Blu-ray player, console and phone are all from different manufacturers but all have custom YouTube interfaces. Why are all of these necessary?

The TV is often the largest and most beautiful screen in the home for enjoying videos. Regardless of your brand of TV, game console, or phone, you should be able to enjoy YouTube on any device without having to re-learn how to use the application for that specific device. That’s simply not the case at the moment. With new features like our “send to TV” that automatically pair your phone and your TV, and efforts with partners to improve latency and performance, we are actively working to simplify the experience across the device ecosystem.

Why does it matter?

Services such as Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and Xbox Music will have to contend with another company trying to forge a space in the subscription sector. With Apple set to launch its iRadio service later this year, the streaming sector – in the US at least – is starting to get crowded. According to the latest RIAA figures, revenues from subscription and streaming services last year totaled $570.8m, up 58.9 per cent from $359.2m in 2011. Included in these figures are retail revenues for paid services and wholesale revenues from advertising-supported services. The number of digital subscribers to paid on-demand services totaled 3.4 million at end-2012.

Although the growth rate is impressive, the number of subscribers is not high enough to support all of the services operating in the US in the longer term. Most analysts are expecting some sort of shakeout in the music-subscription sector, where only those services with lots of subscribers or deep pockets will survive. Google certainly has enough funding for the long haul, but the question is whether it can attract enough users.

Why now?

In most countries, music-subscription services are only just breaking out of niche status. There are exceptions to this rule: Scandinavian consumers have gone crazy over music subscriptions, and revenues from the sector have exploded in the region in the last couple of years. Although this is good news for the music industry, what isn’t so welcome is the impact that subscriptions are having on download sales. Take Finland, for example: Although not the biggest music market in the world, the country has seen a big rise in trade revenues from subscription services. In the first three months of this year, subscription sales rose sharply compared with the same period in 2012. But downloads? Well, trade revenues from singles sales fell 15.5 per cent, and full-album downloads were down 4.1 per cent.

Why does this matter? If consumers are going to choose subscriptions over downloads in the longer term, any company wanting to make it big in digital music will need to offer subscription services. The US has not seen the same explosion in subscription numbers as Northern Europe, but that is not to suggest that it won’t happen. Even Apple, the biggest critic of music-subscription services, is set to enter the fray later this year. Google might have beaten Apple to the starting line, but it will need to come up with something very special if it is to win the race.

Chances of success?

One feature of most subscription services is that they are particularly successful in their home markets. Spotify hails from Sweden, WiMP is operated by Norwegian streaming-media company Aspiro, Deezer is a French company, and Melon and Mnet are based in South Korea. In each of these countries, the popularity of local services far outweighs interest in any other offering. Although Google is a US company, its reach is global, meaning that the company doesn’t have a home market as such.

Some might cite Apple’s global success with iTunes as proof that success is possible anywhere: Even though it is a US company, it is the dominant download service in most of the countries where it operates. However, Apple entered digital music when the sector was on its knees. The company created the best media player, with a built-in store, more than 10 years ago and is still reaping the rewards today. Google might be able to rival Apple in terms of financial backing, but that doesn’t guarantee success. Microsoft is the perfect example of a company that has thrown millions of dollars at the music industry and has largely failed to break down the doors.

Google does have an advantage over its rivals in that it has a massive number of Android-powered devices in the market, and the key to its success might be tied to how many Android users it can convince to pay out for a music subscription.

Samsung customers will be able to purchase apps and music, video, books, games and learning services from Samsung Hub and Samsung Apps, charged to their phone bill

The innovation arm of Spanish operator group Telefónica has announced a global direct carrier billing deal with Korean device maker Samsung. Under the terms of the agreement, Samsung will integrate BlueVia payment APIs into its handsets and tablets for Telefónica customers.

BlueVia is a set of APIs allowing app developers to interface with mobile networks. It was launched by Telefónica in August 2011, and in October 2012 Norwegian operator group Telenor became an equal partner to the API platform.

As a result of the deal, Samsung customers will be able to purchase apps and music, video, books, games and learning services from the Samsung Hub and Samsung Apps portals using the billing capability, rather than their credit or debit card.

Telefónica added the deal follows similar agreements with companies including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

“Partnerships like this allow us to harness the power of the billing relationships we have with our customers to make it easier for them to consume content on their tablets and mobile devices,” said Wayne Thorsen, vice president of global partnerships at Telefónica Digital.

Telefónica added that the direct to bill capability on Samsung devices will be rolled out to its regional units in phases, starting with Telefónica Germany in the coming months.

BBM is going cross platform

Canadian firm BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM) plans to make its popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application available on iOS and Android platforms later this year.

In the first version of multi-platform BBM, iOS and Android users will get access to instant messaging; multi-person chat; voice note sharing; and BlackBerry Groups of up to 30 people able to share calendars, photos and files.

BlackBerry claims more than 60 million monthly active BBM users of which more than 51 million are daily active users connecting with friends or colleagues an average of one and a half hours every day. The firm said that BBM users send and receive more than ten billion messages each day, which is nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps and almost half of BBM messages are opened within 20 seconds of being received.

In a bid to turn BBM into a more social platform, BlackBerry also announced BBM Channels, designed to allow users to connect with businesses, brands, celebrities and groups.

Pending approval from Google Play and the Apple App Store, BBM should be available on other platforms later this summer and will be updated to include BBM Channels as well as voice and video chatting for iOS and Android later this year.

Andrew Bocking, EVP, software product management and ecosystem, at BlackBerry, said: “For BlackBerry, messaging and collaboration are inseparable from the mobile experience, and the time is definitely right for BBM to become a multi-platform mobile service. BBM has always been one of the most engaging services for BlackBerry customers, enabling them to easily connect while maintaining a valued level of personal privacy.”

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Voice is a 130 year old product that has seen little innovation in its lifespan

Mobile operators should not measure voice services in terms of minutes used, as it no longer reflects how we communicate, according to Dean Bubley, founder of Disruptive Analysis. Speaking at the TM Forum Management World in Nice, Bubley argued that voice is a 130 year old product that has seen little innovation in its lifespan. As a result, the industry is using an outdated metric to measure its core service.

“Voice allows you as a human being to achieve something, whether it is to make a sale, to contact family members or for customer service needs. But it does not represent how we as humans communicate – we can do better now.”

He explained that while traditionally longer voice calls are charged a higher amount, today there is arguably more value in shorter voice calls. When a consumer is making an online enquiry to a brand’s customer service department, for example, and is unable to have that enquiry answered, being able to make a short phone call to a customer service representative who can instantly access personal details is more valuable than reiterating those same details over the phone.

Bubley also argued that, over time, voice services will become fragmented into silos. Voice services are creeping into new areas, such as gaming or smartphone apps such as taxi-hailing apps, and this is a trend operators should embrace, he said.

“Fragmentation is a good thing for operators,” said Bubley, “because it adds value to their offerings. Services need to be tied to human behaviour and that is what makes them successful. For example, Facebook’s is successful because it appeals to a specific human behaviour – showing off.”

The Geeksphone Keon and Peak are Firefox OS devices

In a push to generate momentum around its mobile operating system, open source software developer Mozilla is releasing free Firefox OS handsets to developers ahead of the commercial launch of the platform later this summer.

The firm has launched its Phones for Apps for Firefox OS programme to encourage developers to build Firefox apps or port existing Chrome, webOS, Blackberry WebWorks, or the PhoneGap apps to the Firefox platform. Developers must tell Mozilla which apps they would like to build or port, and if the proposal is accepted, Mozilla will send them a Geeksphone Keon.

“When Firefox OS phones become available to consumers in select locales this summer, you’ll have an opportunity that only comes around once—a first-mover advantage in Firefox Marketplace,” the firm said through its developer outreach and engagement channel Mozilla Hacks.

“End users in Latin America, Eastern Europe and other launch locations will be on the lookout for playful and practical apps to install: games, tools, and utilities as well as locally relevant news, sports, travel, entertainment, review apps, and social sharing experiences.”

Spanish start-up Geeksphone launched two smartphones running on the Firefox OS platform in April 2013. The Peak and Keon are designed for developers looking to test and create apps for Firefox OS.

“These devices have not been designed for consumers and include a pre-release development version of Firefox OS,” the firm told Telecoms.com.

Mozilla warned, however, that its device inventory is limited and its launch dates are approaching fast, so developers must act quickly. The programme will close at the end of May or when Mozilla’s limited supply of Geeksphones runs out.

Hadoop is breaking through in Big Data

Cloud and Big Data specialist Cloudera has announced the availability of its first developer kit, catering to Apache’s open source software framework Hadoop (CDH). Cloudera has been a champion of Hadoop development, and the kit is designed to help developers to build apps in Hadoop environments faster and more easily than ever before.

Hadoop was initially inspired by papers from Google outlining its approach to handling an avalanche of data, and has since become the de facto approach for storing, processing and analyzing hundreds of terabytes, and even petabytes of data. It’s certainly causing a stir in the industry, by making compute and analytics processes on very large amounts of data not just possible but even relatively simple.

The framework is being rapidly embraced by the enterprise for its ability to capture and manage Big Data, German service provider Deutsche Telekom embraced Big Data wholeheartedly with one of Europe’s largest Hadoop clusters, but the process of building and managing Hadoop environments remains complicated and time-consuming for many developers without specialised training.

In a bid to help organisations unlock the value of their data for actionable insights and competitive advantage, the kit includes a collection of API libraries, tools, example code and documentation that help simplify the most common tasks when working with Apache Hadoop.

“At Cloudera we are not just Hadoop providers; we’re also consumers who know first-hand the challenges developers can face when working with Hadoop,” said Eric Sammer, engineering manager, Cloudera. “The new Cloudera Development Kit is one of the many ways we’re sharing our deep expertise with the community. First-time Hadoop programmers will find that CDK walks them through each step of the process, enabling them to get up and running on the platform quickly, while more-experienced developers will appreciate the flexibility of CDK to swap out different components for a completely customized experience. By making Hadoop more accessible, we are excited to help an even broader range of organizations get more value out of their data.”

https://github.com/cloudera/cdk

Brian Fitzpatrick, Vodafone’s incoming head of Group Carrier Services

Mobile operator group Vodafone has announced that telecommunications services provider ACN Europe’s CEO Brian Fitzpatrick will join the firm as group carrier services director.

Fitzpatrick will assume the role on May 7, 2013, reporting to Nick Jeffery, group enterprise director.

At ACN Europe Fitzpatrick has been responsible for operations in 18 countries. Prior to that, from 2005 to 2011, he was managing director of BT Wholesale Markets. Before that he was president of worldwide commercial operations at wholesale voice, data, IP and mobile signalling services provider Teleglobe International.

“Brian has an outstanding track record of running international businesses with a focus on delivering results,” said Jeffery.

“He brings with him extensive experience of the carrier services sector and I am delighted to welcome him to Vodafone.”

Facebook has seen a rise in revenue and profit year on year in the first quarter of 2013

Social networking site Facebook has seen a rise in revenue and profit year on year for the first quarter of 2013. The firm revealed that mobile accounted for 30 per cent of all advertising revenue for the quarter compared with 23 per cent in 4Q12.

The firm generated $1.5bn in sales in 1Q13, up 38 per cent year on year. Net income grew by 6.8 per cent to reach $219m for the quarter.

Facebook said it had 665 million daily active users in March 2013, representing a year on year increase of 26 per cent. Monthly active users for the quarter numbered 1.11 billion, an increase of 23 per cent year on year. However, the largest increase was in mobile monthly active users, which increased by 54 per cent year on year to reach 751 million as of March 31, 2013.

During the quarter, the firm launched its Android UI skin Facebook Home, and Instagram had 100 million monthly active users in 1Q13, according to Facebook.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in the first few months of the year,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “We have seen strong growth and engagement across our community and launched several exciting products.”

Facebook has just started to scratch the surface of its potential revenues, said Andrew Yates, CEO and co-founder of social CRM provider, Artesian Solutions

“Moving forwards, I anticipate that Facebook will continue to monetise its services by developing new offerings that provide dynamic content based on users’ data,” he said. “Whilst it will still take some time, the company will eventually trade above its IPO listing price and serve as a benchmark of progress for digital advertising, mobile and social.”

Marina Koytcheva, director of forecasting at analyst firm CCS Insight, added that Facebook is consistently and successfully addressing the two concerns raised at its IPO: monetisation of the user base and mobile strategy.

“Advertising revenue is growing and this growth is coming entirely from mobile,” she said. “The company now appears to be very well positioned to capitalise on the fast growing mobile engagement of its users. “

She added that another positive was the consistent growth of revenue across all regions.

“Future user growth is likely to come from emerging markets, and the company needs to build on this momentum to ensure its place as a major digital advertising platform there.”

Liverpool FC has deployed a wifi network in the Centenary Stand of its Anfield stadium

Liverpool FC, a team that dominated English football in the 1970s and 1980s, is looking to become a champion of mobile internet service provision.

The club has recently deployed a wifi network in the Centenary Stand of its Anfield stadium, to allow fans an easier and more reliable method to access match information as well as wider online content. Telecoms.com caught up with Andrew Robinson, Liverpool FC’s (LFC) head of digital media and tech, to find out more.

Robinson explains that the club used technology from wifi network specialist Xirrus for the pilot project. Xirrus provided a number of its Wireless Array access points, each of which allows over 1,000 wireless users to connect to its wifi networks. But before they could be deployed it was necessary for LFC to upgrade its core backbone infrastructure.

“The network infrastructure in the stadium was not as up to date as it might be,” Robinson explains. “This is because Liverpool FC has been in a ‘do we or don’t we?’ situation regarding a move to a new stadium. But when we decided to install a wifi network we had to do some work on core infrastructure.”

Robinson said that the network offers full wifi coverage across the centenary stand and the club has built a user experience layer, to promote content the club believes will get fans excited.

“We’ve made the solution quite open from day one, we’re not controlling exactly where people can go, the standard “bad content” locking aside, but we’ve populated the experience layer with match stats, a range of food and drink offers, the ability to tap into social media and the ability to place bets on the game with our partner Paddy Power. The challenge now is to monitor how good the experience is and improve it accordingly.”

Robinson acknowledges that building a wifi network is not the only way to improve fans’ access to the web from the stadium. He reveals that the club has considered capitalising on the existing relationships it has with mobile operators to enhance cellular coverage within the stadium.

“We’ve talked to a range of operators about a range of solutions and we’ve worked with mobile operators all around the world on content distribution,” he says.

“From a network perspective, we looked at the potential to enhance the cellular coverage at the ground as well to provide better voice and data services within the stadium, but there were issues in terms of the dense space within the stadium, the power requirements, other priorities and projects. It’s not something we’ll necessarily rule out.”

Robinson added that wifi was more attractive as the club had been looking to improve data connectivity within the stadium, rather than voice. In addition, offload to wifi should free up capacity on the cellular network, making it easier for fans to use it for core communication services.

Access to the wifi network will initially be free for fans in the Centenary stand, although  this does not necessarily mean the club will not charge for wifi access in the future. In fact, Robinson says the club may build in functionality such as a direct micropayment linked to ticket types.

“If you take video replays as an example, there may be a layer in the service to charge extra for that, and differentiate between general access and restricted access.”

Robinson acknowledges that Xirrus was attractive because it was one of the more cost effective solutions on the market but he adds that another benefit the firm offers is the way the network pushes a lot of the technology to the array itself, meaning the club can minimise cable runs. Robinson explains that as Anfield is not a modern stadium, he faced many challenges with space and complexity. Therefore, the ability to minimise cable runs reduces installation costs.

The club also hopes to drive improvements in its customer relationships. “The beauty of this kind of project is that you can gain benefits in all sorts of areas,” Robinson says. “The starting point is the fans; we get data we didn’t have, particularly from those in the hospitality areas, as we don’t always know who those people are.”

And, even if the wifi remains free of charge to fans, it is hoped that it could drive spend in other areas. “Wifi connectivity could also mean people arriving at the ground earlier and if they arrive earlier, there’s potential that they’ll consume more food and drink, especially as there is an incentive through the special offers within the application layer we’ve created. There’s also exposure for our partners and sponsors, and then there’s future potential with micropayment transactions.”

Perhaps more than anything, though, wifi is just a hygiene factor for today’s sports crowds.“Wifi is increasing becoming commodity – people expect it,” says Robinson. “Not providing wifi is not going to make people stop going to Anfield, but people increasingly just expect these sorts of things, it is just part of their in-venue experience.”