Users of mobile video calling services including Skype are anticipated to reach 130 million by 2018, a new report revealed.
Juniper Research’s Future Voice Strategies: mVoIP, Carrier OTT and Mobile Video Calling 2014-2018 report noted that with several over-the-top content (OTT) services, only a small fraction of mobile video calling users make direct payments for the service.
Further, the OTT mobile video calling services are broadening their service offering, and roping in third parties or developing their own apps in a bid to boost their monetisation options.
Juniper Research associate analyst Anthony Cox said that the role of mobile video calling is becoming clearer.
"With a number of OTT players having gained a critical mass of users through the provision of free video services, those players are now introducing an array of premium products or creating revenue-share partnerships to create a viable revenue stream," Cox said.
The standards including Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) would boost integration of mVoIP functionality into web sites and mobile Apps, further leading to development of new services like direct access to sales call centres from websites.
The report added that most of the mobile network operators (MNOs) would adopt VoLTE with the launch of 4G, boosting their network efficiency, while MNOs and rival OTT carriers are partnering on developing advanced ‘carrier OTT’ voice services.
