Vodafone Germany Offers Zero-Rated Data Gaming Pass

Vodafone Germany is offering a free gaming pass to subscribers of Young tariffs that were introduced in 2017, but subscribers of Young tariffs that debuted in 2016 will be charged €5.00 per month for the pass, as will subscribers to the operator’s Red tariffs from 2016 and 2017 and the Red + Allnet and Red + Data tariffs, according to a report. The pass provides zero-rating data for gaming.

The gaming pass is not available with the Red XL, Young XXL and Red + Kids options. It has a one-month minimum term, cannot be swapped with other passes and can only be used in Germany.

Vodafone has the right to offer its pass for EU roaming with a limit of 5 GB of data per month. The games currently available with the option for Android and iOS are Asphalt 9, Legends, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Dead Rivals, Elvenar, Forge of Empires, Hay Day, Pokemon GO and Warlords of Aternum.

As we have written in this space on a number of occasions, mobile online gaming has become a major sector of the mobile market, and since the increasingly rich-featured games consume very large amounts of data, they are a lucrative revenue opportunity for mobile operators as well as for game designers.

Targeted zero-rating of data has proved time and again to be a very reliable way of stimulating usage of mobile services. The strategy of encouraging greater usage by not charging and then imposing a charge once users have become habituated to higher levels of data consumption is tried and true, and widely implemented in markets where net-neutrality regulations do not stand in their way.

Promoting gaming usage on tariffs that are targeted to young users is particularly appropriate, given that gaming appeal especially, if not entirely, to this demographic. Vodafone’s Young suite of plans was introduced in 2016 for users aged 18 to 28 and includes flexibility and various discounted bundles—again, features that are particularly valuable to the youth demographic.

As to why the operator has chosen not to offer the free gaming pass to those who joined in 2016, it is possible that Vodafone feels that customers of longer standing are less likely to leave the operator and therefore do not need to be prioritized for retention-oriented marketing efforts. The fact that the offer is also not available to customers of other tariffs that are not in the Young group is explainable in terms of demographic preferences, with these other subscribers presumably much less likely to be interested in gaming. Nonetheless, anyone who is not a Young 2017 subscriber and is interested in gaming can still receive gaming data at a very low price, just €5.00, so the promotion reaches farther than it might at first appear. 

 Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.  If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact our Editor-in-chief John Dorfman at jdorfman@tarifica.com

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com 

SK Telecom to Create Retail Centers for Pokémon Gamers

South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom has signed a partnership agreement with Japan-based The Pokémon Company to roll out joint marketing initiatives. Together, SK Telecom and The Pokémon Company will promote the AR (augmented reality) technology-based mobile game, according to a news report. SK Telecom said its 4,000 official retail stores throughout South Korea will serve as “PokéStops” where users can obtain virtual items and “Gyms” where they can engage in gaming battles using the Pokémon characters.

In cooperation with the U.S.-based AR software company Niantic, developer of the Pokémon mobile game, SK Telecom will enable its customers to play Pokémon Go without using their monthly data through the end of June. The company said the decision was made because younger game players are usually subscribers to cheaper data plans.


We have written frequently about mobile operators partnering with entertainment content providers in order to strengthen their brands, increase retention, or even directly drive revenue. This three-way partnership between an operator, SK Telecom, and both a content provider and a software developer, while it does not provide exclusive access to premium content, is nonetheless a creative plan that is likely to deliver benefits to all parties.

For the operator, the Pokémon agreement would achieve the following: First, it would associate SKT’s brand with that of a hugely popular, multi-platform pop-culture phenomenon. While most mobile co-branding takes place only through mobile devices, this plan to create play centers within SKT’s 4,000 physical stores adds another dimension to the cross-promotion and increases visibility. Because this visibility is at street level, it would also have the ability to attract a large number of potential customers who are not yet SK Telecom subscribers and thus could aid with acquisition as well as retention.

Second, by zero-rating Pokémon game-play data, the operator will be encouraging rapid uptake of the service. Since this is a relatively short-term data promotion, it is to be expected that after it ends, the operator will be able to convert a fairly large percentage of the trial users to long-term ones who will pay for the data needed to play the games. And since AR requires a large amount of data, this could prove particularly profitable. Given the addictive nature of mobile gaming, its power to upsell users will likely be strong. SKT is also smart to target the youth market with this offering, given the over all importance of early cultivation of this rapidly growing and data-hungry—though temporarily budget-minded—demographic.

Third, associating itself with cutting-edge technology such as AR is yet another good way for SK Telecom to burnish its brand and stay up to date.

 

Tarifica is the global leader in monitoring and analyzing telecom pricing. Covering hundreds of operators in every region of the globe, Tarifica’s databases of mobile and fixed line data and voice tariffs are among the largest and most in-depth in the world. Tarifica is also a leading publisher of benchmark and other pricing reports, and its analysts are recognized authorities in the telecom industry, relied upon by operators and businesses worldwide for pricing insight and guidance.

To learn more about Tarifica, please visit www.tarifica.com