SoLoMIDEM D5.3.2 Market Opportunity Analysis

D5.3.1 (“Market Research Report”) and D5.3.2 (“Market Opportunity Analysis”) build together the third task of the SoLoMIDEM Work Package 5 on Business Models. Its objective is to show the potential for new breakthroughs in the valorization of SoLoMo (social, local, mobile) applications and their (possible) link to federated identity management and location privacy. It is the aim of this task to evaluate the market opportunities that the technological innovation can create.
- The derivable at hand builds the second part of the “Market Opportunity Analysis” (MOA) task. Its original intention was to, based on the competitive analysis and the market segmentation, build scenarios for the eventual configuration of the SoLoMIDEM platform. Scenario development is however an essential part of task D5.2.1 and D5.2.2. and seems thus redundant at this point. For the conclusion and completion of this task, it shows more important to continue and expand the previous approach in order to estimate the market opportunity for the complete SoLoMIDEM idea. By doing this we can include the developments and new inputs that emerged in the continuation of the project and give them equally much attention and value.
That means that we supplement the first deliverable, which mainly focused on location-based service applications, with in-depth analysis about identity management possibilities, concepts and applications, journey planning possibilities and group planning tools, aspects that gained more importance in the fine graining of the use case. Such features are central in “Swarm”, a mobile application, which is on the market since 2014 and is a Spin-off of Foursquare. Therefore it is also central in the analysis of Wave 3, a user survey conducted within SoLoMIDEM in fall 2014.
The remainder of this deliverable is structured as followed:
After briefly describing the Use Case, Section 2 describes the methodology used in the rest of the deliverable. It explains the need to consider other features besides location-based services (LBS) namely identity management, group planning and journey planning. The succeeding two sections capture features of SoLoMIDEM that came short in the predecessor of this deliverable and have been concretized through the development and formulation of the use case.
Section 3 provides an extensive discussion of identity and identity management systems including definitions, concepts, utilizations, realizations and purpose in theory and showcased by practical implications.
Section 4 discusses 8 services: Waze, SNCB mobile app, Moovit, GroupMe, Rundavoo, Swarm, Planapple and Triporama. They are concerned about journey planning and mobility on the one hand and group planning on the other hand – important SoLoMIDEM features. We analyze them upon parameters of how they allow personal data management and data handling and their revenue models.
Section 5,analyzes the results of the Wave 3 survey that was conducted in this project. It is centered around Swarm as the most similar application to the one envisioned in SoLoMIDEM. It also considers users’ concern with privacy.
Section 6 concludes and provides the following recommendations regarding SoLoMIDEM’s market strategy:
- The basic or general version of the application might be usable without holding an account or sharing of personal data.
- Restriction for using apps are mentioned in the terms and conditions for many services and applications. An identity management system with an official verification of user credentials could take care of the concordance with these terms and conditions and grant access only to eligible people.
- For the creation of accounts, SSOs are interesting alternatives to the standard sign-up. They typically allow smooth and convenient log-ins.
- The Swarm user community is a realistic intended market for the SoLoMIDEM app.
- SoLoMIDEM should be made available for free, at least in a basic version. Performing basic activities (e.g. planning a journey) should not require to create an account;
- SoLoMIDEM could be a further addition to the apps used and does not necessarily need to be a substitute. However SoLoMIDEM should propose features that bring an added value and that go beyond their core activity;
- Users that are most likely to adopt the app will already be Facebook users. Hence, Facebook would be the preferred marketing channel
- Identity Management in the SoLoMIDEM app could make the difference by being clear and transparent. Thus doing, it might open up the app to a segment of people concerned about their personal data. Besides, SoLoMIDEM could raise awareness among users regarding privacy issues. On the other hand, SoLoMIDEM should allow for social login, e.g. by using a Facebook account.