There is one common source of revenue for mobile VoIP/callback companies: cheap long distance calling. Some of them arrange the termination into the public telephone networks themselves. Some do it via Skype. While mobile telephony arbitrage is rather new (except for the calling card market), the barriers to entry into mobile VoIP/callback are not exactly tough. You pay a few thousand dollars and you can be up and running in a matter of days.
In markets with low entry barriers, you have to bet big money on the venture. Mobile VoIP companies do not have that kind of money. I have been exploring the revenue models of these companies for some time. Outside the arbitrage business, you find models such as Nimbuzz that are based on advertising. Nimbuzz will be dealing with text based ads. There are also certain audio based ad models in the market. There is some whitelabelling going on as well whereby a mobile VoIP company enables a cell operator to offer the service.
mig33 seems to be trying its hand at monetizing the mobile content. Encouraged by the recent take up of items like ringtones and wallpapers, the startup is planning to offer content such as entertainment (games, applications, music) and personalization features (virtual goods). But mig33 would require a mix of global and local content given its user base is spread all over the globe.
Currently, the company is sourcing more content to integrate with it’s platform, including social applications that can take advantage of mobile. There’s a payment system within mig33, where users can buy credits (to be used for mobile content and any other fee paying services) from local partners and retail points (e.g. via prepaid cards and vouchers), in various countries.
In order to increase its chances of monetization of the mobile content, mig33 has to add more local partners and retails points, in more and more countries. And that is a huge challenge for a small startup.
Like other startups in mobile VoIP and mobile callback, mig33’s offering of cheap international calls has been the key source of revenue for the company. The company is not focused on advertising as a means of monetization right now. However it is willing to consider it later as it builds the size and engagement of its mobile community, building it’s attractiveness to mobile advertisers.
There is another major difference in mig33 model which has implications in terms of revenue sources and monetization. The company has created its own independent mig33 community, and so far independent of other social networks. At some point it will be tempted to form such relationships though – with social networks and maybe the cell operators as well if it has to experiment with various possible sources of revenue.