Mobile Web tech vendors Bango say they see that the opening-up of mobile traffic channels – paying for on-deck links to off-deck sites and mobile advertising through Yahoo! and Google (News - Alert) – as an indication that content providers are acquiring customers through the mobile Internet rather than via PC Web affiliate programs.

 

“WAP billing is now the preferred way to sell content to customers acquired through mobile marketing,” says Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing and Alliances at Bango (News - Alert), adding that they predict this “e-commerce for the mobile Web” will “dominate how subscriptions are marketed and sold in the US within the next 12 months.”

 

Subscriptions tend to be the mainstay of the mobile content market in the US. Bango’s MMA-compliant WAP-based mobile subscription service is designed to eliminate the need to send text messages to make a purchase – “the price, subscription time period and T&Cs are clearly displayed on-screen before consumers click to purchase,” according to the Bangovians.

 

Earlier this month TMC’s Nitya Prashant reported that a Bango survey of the 20 most trafficked PC Web sites has found that “half of these sites do not work well on mobile phones.”

 

The survey concluded that that PC Web sites are not adapting fast enough to match mobile browsing trends. Even though five percent of visitors to PC Web sites come from mobile devices (compared to 1 percent last year), the Bango study concluded, “PC Web sites have yet to show mobile-friendly versions of their sites.”

 

A recent update to the Bango mobile subscription service provides an API so content providers can see the status of their subscriptions. ”Bango re-bills consumers on their behalf once the subscription period has finished, notifying the user by text,” Malhotra explains.

 

The WAP model “capitalizes on this year’s surge in mobile Web browsing,” Malhotra says. “We anticipate US mobile operators will support more flexibility around subscription pricing models next year with the introduction of weekly subs, at price points other than $9.99.”

 

Bango has offices in USA and UK and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange.