Mobile 2.0 Europe panel: Beyond free

The second panel is on. First we’ve heard Priya Prakash, who is Creative Director for Consumer Experience at Nokia (NYSE: NOK). She had a great keynote talking about user experiences, and now she’s joined by the following people to discuss the “Beyond free” concept:

• Inma Martinez, Digital Media Strategist and Investment Advisor at Stradbroke (Moderator)
• Dr. Lai Kok Fung, CEO and co-founder of BuzzCity
• Harald Neidhardt, CMO and co-founder of Smaato
• Fee Beyer, Product and Innovation Team at T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) International
• Ian Ginn, Programmer Director TransmediaLab Amsterdam, founder of Hubbub Media

Ms. Martinez points that investors don’t see clear revenues from startups, raising questions such us how to make money out of mobile applications and services, and what digital goods and services are selling.

First they’ve discussed what’s selling:

• Priya said it’s all about the context, to create services which will fit in users’ daily lives.
• Game sales in Asia are pointed as a good example.
• iPhone games are hot as well.
• Unlike.net and Orbster are good examples of services that make money.
• Importance of brands. Smaller companies give stuff away to get user attention.

Other mobile services are discussed as well:

• Mobile banking in emerging markets works. More people there have mobiles, but don’t have a PC.
• Mobile services for enterprise definitely works, it’s the services targeting consumers that have problems monetizing.

Finally, they talked about how to get funding. The VC part of the crowd said that you must show how your product/service makes money, while entrepreneurs insisted it’s all about the passion…