ST. LOUIS—Amdocs is looking to tap the booming market for off-deck mobile content with a new Web-based offering targeting media companies looking to build direct-to-consumer Internet storefronts.
The product, dubbed OpenMarket Exchange, is designed to support digital purchases and minimize revenue leakage from third-party transactions. Such losses of revenue can occur when third parties sell content directly to consumers but use carrier statements to bill consumers.
“The media companies (with active storefronts for mobile content) are not only getting paid late, they’re sometimes receiving only 70 or 80 percent” of the revenue they’re due, said Steve Shivers, general manager of OpenMarket. “Many media companies that would otherwise be ready and eager to invest in the mobile channel are still sitting on the sidelines” because of such issues.
Direct-to-consumer activity is expected to increase substantially in wireless as content providers and software developers look for alternatives to crowded carrier decks. Yankee Group estimates the U.S. market for off-deck content has tripled in the past 18 months and will exceed $700 million.
The new offering was developed by Qpass, a Seattle-based developer of billing software Amdocs acquired earlier this year for $275 million.
