Issues / Requirements
* Unify a diversified and social network-savvy market
* Introduce a mobile service to complement telephony and SMS services
* Establish a mobile community and engage its users
Solution
* Offer a mobile social service with unlimited data access, enable weekly or monthly subscription and top-up for in-game items and VAS
* Build a localised mobile social community, where users can enjoy next-generation communication, entertainment through gamification and social sharing
* Increase subscriber stickiness on the service by coming up with social apps to encourage users to interact with phonebook friends as well as with other users
Significant Results
* Significant subscriber growth from 0 to 300K in 25 days since its introduction
* Steady growth of users until after its launch
* Exponential usage rate growth of built-in games
* Increased social interaction among subscribers with social sharing as the best service
Vodafone, the world’s 2nd largest operator, is powered by MOZAT
Vodafone is a dominant player in Egypt, covering a wide array of voice and data exchange services, as well as 3G, ADSL and broadband Internet services.
Operating in the unique market of Arab Republic of Egypt, Vodafone is serving one of the most populous countries in Africa and the Middle East, with an estimated 80 million people.
Egypt, considered a diversified market, is one of the world’s most social network-savvy markets. In fact, social network ushered in a social revolution in the country – where the most powerful weapon used in the recent uprising was social networking. Undoubtedly, the people of Egypt were united by social media for a common cause: bring democracy to the country.
Understanding the needs of the market and recognising the value of mobile communities, Vodafone Egypt partnered with Mozat to strengthen mobile communities in the country through Vodafone Buzz.
Image courtesy of Vodafone Egypt (www.vodafone.com.eg)
Establishing Mobile Social Communities
The goal was to establish localised mobile social communities and strengthen ties among members. According to a study, the Egyptian market is family-oriented and counts on friends for opinions on products and services. Consumers trust brands that are also trusted by family members and friends.
Vodafone Egypt aims to strengthen this relationship and build a mobile community that will find a common ground to connect with each other, increase mobile activity on all platforms and devices.
An Integrated Social, Communication & Gaming Platform
Together with Vodafone, we built Buzz, a mobile social network that enables users to exchange real-time messages with file-sharing, play multi-player mobile social games and share updates all the time. Subscribers are given two options to subscribe to Buzz: weekly or monthly. The package includes unlimited data access and an efficient top-up system for in-game virtual items and value-added services (VAS).
An All-in-One Mobile Social Platform
The introduction of an all-in-one mobile social platform proved to be a success. The three kernel activities – communication, casual gaming and social sharing – were an instant hit among users.
Social sharing, where users built their mobile profiles and visited their friends’, topped the activities on Buzz. Communication through instant messaging with both “online” friends and phonebook buddies came in second in terms of the most widely used services on Buzz. Lastly, mobile gaming and other social apps recorded a significant usage rate among users as they played Ocean Age, a popular casual fishing game with friends, and participated in circles, polls and chatrooms with other users. These mobile activities encouraged social interaction with friends and the rest of the users.
Communication-Centricity
In partnership with Vodafone, we designed Buzz to be a communication-centric app to enrich users’ mobile experience. True enough, users have been logging in 10 times per day, spending 3.5 hours on Buzz. Over the course of the succeeding months, Vodafone has observed improved user-stickiness, with users of different devices communicating seamlessly on Buzz.
Users initially came to Buzz to connect to Facebook. But as weeks went on since its launch, interaction among phonebook contacts increased by 75%, which grew steadily over time. Also, mobile activities among people who found “new friends” on Buzz steadily increased at 18%. Facebook chat became the least reason why users login on Buzz because they’ve found new ways to communicate with all their friends: messaging on Buzz’s IM and 3rd party IM networks, competing against friends on “Ocean Age” game, voting on polls, sharing common interests in circles and hanging out in chatrooms.
Subscriber Growth
Substantial subscriber growth since launch date from zero to 300,000 in 25 days
Best features: (1) social sharing (visiting friends’ profile pages, sharing of photos); (2) community chatting (internal instant messaging service); (3) other social apps (social gaming, participating in chatrooms and polls)
With a communication-centric app that works on all devices, users on Buzz are free to connect with their phonebook contacts and “online” friends seamlessly. For Vodafone, this means a steady increase of users and improved customer retention rate.