Edit 2012-11-03: Updated links.
Edit 2011-12-13: Telenor Mobilstart changed name to Multimobil. Name and link updated.
Today I had, for another project I’m working with, the need for a premium SMS service. I did a short investigation and found that there were a bunch of providers on the Swedish market (some of the providers listed below are Swedish only). There is also a bunch of international providers offering services on the Swedish market.
The price level is common for most of the providers. It’s an ‘expensive’ market in the sense that the operators share of the total price is quite large. In general the providers take about a third of the revenue. It might be fair but there is a trick – it’s the mandatory 50-öres (~5 cent) confirmation SMS being sent.
For a premium-SMS on 1 SEK (1 SEK = 100 öre) the provider will take a about 33 öre in revenue share (including tax). Then the confirmation SMS is 50 öre (62,5 öre inc tax). The remaining revenue will be 100-33-62,5 = 4,5 öre. The conclusion is that for small payments the model is not working and it basically invalidates the use of premium-SMS as micro payment system.
The investigation lead to one good thing though – a list of companies providing these services:
- Multimobil – http://www.multimobil.se
- SMS Teknik – http://www.smsteknik.se
- Smart SMS – http://smartsms.se
- 42IT – http://www.42it.se
- MO-SMS – http://www.mosms.com
- Fortumo – http://fortumo.com
- ViaNett – http://sms.vianett.com
- MyPay – http://www.mypay.se
Note that the above list is by no means complete. It is also completely un-ordered and is only meant as a starting point to compare different providers.
Gjorde en liten snabb beräkning för hur mycket pengar som jag som tjänsteleverantör får behålla med telenors mobilstart:
Pris för kund | Kronor till mig | % till mig
1 0,04 4
2 0,71 35
3 1,38 46
4 2,04 51
5 2,71 54
6 3,38 56
7 4,04 58
8 4,71 59
9 5,38 60
10 6,04 60
11 6,71 61
12 7,38 61
13 8,04 62
14 8,71 62
15 9,38 63
16 10,04 63
17 10,71 63
18 11,38 63
19 12,04 63
20 12,71 64
21 13,38 64
22 14,04 64
23 14,71 64
24 15,38 64
25 16,04 64
Det blir alltså som David säger ganska små summor kvar. Dessutom är alla siffror inklusive moms, så det blir ännu mindre kvar när staten fått sitt.
En annan svensk leverantör som erbjuder Premium SMS är IP1.se. Har testat dem ett tag och gillar verkligen deras administrationspanel. Har annars bara testat Telenors så har iofs inte så mycket att jämföra med.