2025 what will be big in telemedia

As the new year hoves into view, we take a look at what some of the big trends in telemedia will be in 2025

The value-added services (VAS) sector and the content market that sits behind it have had a strong 2024, especially in MENA, and this is set to continue into 2025.

• Sports continue to be a prime content vertical, with the ability to slice, dice and analyse all sports creating massive content opportunities. This is particularly prevalent in MENA, where the push towards sports has created a booming market –which itself leads to developments across the telemedia ecosystem, including payments, messaging and more.

• Health and wellbeing content is set to continue to grow across 2025 in all regions, driven by younger consumers who are more focussed on living healthy lives than their more hedonistic elders.

• Edutainment is also on the rise, with the market for educational content already strong in all markets, but with India being a particular driver.

• Short form video – with the continued popularity of TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, short-form, attention-grabbing videos will dominate mobile content. Brands will focus on storytelling that captures user interest within seconds

• Immersive and Web3.0 – with user acquisition (UA) a growing issue around the popular yet highly competitive content and VAS market, content providers are turning to tech to launch even better services. Immersive, 3D content is starting to come through – check out Hungama’s offering around sports – while ‘web3.0’ services involving the metaverse are slowly but surely emerging. We predicted that metaverse would be huge by the end of 2024; it isn’t but it is coming.

• AI content creation – AI will significantly enhance user experiences on mobile platforms, enabling real-time personalization of content and predictive recommendations. Tools will repurpose content across formats, making it easier to reach diverse audiences effectively and consistently. AI-driven features in smartphones, such as Apple’s and Google’s upcoming devices, will transform how users interact with their devices and consume content

• Superbundling This will continue to be important to MNOs, DCB and content markets. Boring but true. Bundling services – from within and without the telecoms sphere – together is a huge opportunity for MNOs and it drives DCB too, especially in evolving markets – so expect more of this to come.

PAYMENTS

Key mobile payment trends for 2025, including carrier billing and direct carrier billing (DCB), reveal an evolving market driven by convenience, digital monetisation and technological integration.

• Carrier billing will continue to grow (see page 16). Spending through DCB is predicted to reach $100 billion by 2025, growing from $37 billion in 2020, representing a 172% increase, according to Juniper Research. DCB’s simplicity makes it increasingly popular for subscription services like gaming, video streaming and music platforms. DCB is also evolving beyond digital content to physical goods, ticketing and gambling. Integration with IoT and other services – all of which are driven by the growth of 5G (see below) – will also see this billing tool reach new heights and new levels of penetration worldwide.

• Digital wallets are also growing in all regions and will really come into their own in 2025 (see page 19). Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Samsung Pay are growing in popularity due to their security and ease of use. Many regional versions are also starting to appear, some of them backed by banks and well known fintechs, others startups with no pedigree. Either way, wallets are starting to appeal to mass market users and, thanks to the tech that sits behind them they are increasingly integrated into apps and services, allowing for one-click transactions.

• A2A payments will grow, driven partly by this embedding of wallets and partly through a raft of new services popping up worldwide (see page 18). Services such as Pix in Brazil, UPI in India, PSE in Colombia and mobile money in Kenya. The rise of A2A payments will also form part of the UA strategy adopted by content and VAS companies, as the streamlining of payments – and therefore easing onboarding – will become, for a while at least, key to acquiring users.

• Blockchain and crypto are also on the rise. Blockchain technology is enabling secure, transparent transactions, and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are being integrated into mainstream payment platforms. The use of stablecoins for mobile payments is rising due to their reduced volatility compared to traditional cryptocurrencies. Expect more of this in 2025.

• Voice payments could also start to become a thing. Using biometrics – fingerprint and face recognition – through smartphones is already a key part of the growth of wallets, but the use of voice as a unique identifier is also likely to appear in 2025. This could well also lead to the creation of other services that are initiated and then transacted using only voice, which opens up new possibilities across the market and around the world.

ENGAGEMENT

Messaging and engagement is going to play a key role in driving users to user VAS, as well as being a booming business that allows any kind of company to interact with its customers.

• RCS messaging is the big news in engagement in late 2024 and will continue to thrive in 2025, now that Apple is on board. How it plays out remains to be seen (see page 26), but with near ubiquitous handset coverage, businesses are expecting to get on board with using RCS to deliver richer and perhaps transactional messages in 2025. In Germany, it is already happening and we are seeing growing interest in trials around the world.

• OTT messaging will be impacted by this growth in use of RCS, but by how much all depends. Just because consumers can use RCS, doesn’t mean they will. Many won’t even know what it is.

For companies reaching out to consumers, sending RCS will initiate interaction on the channel, but for consumers already wedded to using OTT messaging such as WhatsApp and WeChat, they are unlikely to change. The likely scenario is that RCS will increase overall use of business messaging and everyone will be a winner – except, perhaps, SMS.

• Social media messaging is only going to grow, with GenZ becoming real-world spenders, tapping into how they communicate will be key; and that means social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram and their like. This does involve messages, but more it is going to also involve video and clips. This sits at the nexus of marketing (see below) and messaging, but we are set to see growth in video messaging, possibly even as part of shortform entertainment content. We could well see, in 2025, the beginnings of enter-gagement, where brands are ‘messaging’ younger consumers using entertainment short-form content generated by AI.

• Voice and video messaging interaction could also see growth. Anyone under the age of 16 is already doing it with their friends, opting to send voice messages rather than text or WhatsApp. If they aren’t Snapping each other, they are sending voice and video messages. Expect businesses to follow this trend.

• Micro-conversions and real-time engagement are also set to take off as a result. Tracking microconversions, such as app interactions or newsletter sign-ups, will help optimise user journeys. Quick responses to user queries on social platforms will also be crucial, as will doing this all through voice, video, OTT and RCS.

MARKETING

With UA a top priority and with a consumer base emerging that wants to be talked to in new ways, how telemedia services are marketed and promoted is also set to change.

• Commerce media will be a key part of this. Google may have stalled the kill order on cookies, but cookies will eventually come to an end – let’s face it, most users block them wherever they can. This means that brands and service providers face an uphill struggle to understand their users and to personalise how they are marketed to. Here, consumer facing businesses – probably, in the telemedia case, brands, merchants, MNOs and aggregators – can leverage all that first party data they have from the interactions they already have with their customers. Using this to personalise marketing campaigns is already in play; selling access to that is next. This is commerce media, where consumer facing companies, for example and MNO, can sell ad space on their digital properties (and even their physical stores) for brands to advertise relevant goods and services. In the digital realm, this can be targeted to who is looking at what, giving in theory ads that talk directly to the individual customer. This is already growing in popularity in retail – under the name retail media – but it is slowly drifting out into the world of all consumer-facing businesses that have ‘data at scale’ Expect and explosion in this in 2025.

• Always-on marketing and omni-channel SEO will also play an increasing role. Consumers will expect brands to maintain a seamless, 24x7 presence across all platforms. Omni-channel strategies will ensure consistent experiences, supported by AI-driven tools for rapid engagement and response.

• Soundless and visual-first ads will appear too, tapping in to how consumers interact with the world and each other. As more users consume mobile content silently, soundless ads using text and visuals will become the norm. This aligns with the demand for nonintrusive advertising.

• In-game and interactive marketing will also play a role in services such as games, entertainment and education. For example, mobile gaming continues to grow, presenting opportunities for branded content and product placements that feel natural within games. The same goes for lifestyle, health and wellbeing and many other categories. All backed by first party data-led commerce media.

• Voice searches will grow in popularity, encouraging mobile content that is optimised for conversational queries.

NETWORKS AND TECHNOLOGY

Underpinning all of this are, of course, the networks and the tech that sits within and around them. Here, there will be both incremental and large scale changes to come.

• More 5G will be the basis for much of the developments seen across the sector in the coming year. Better bandwidth and more reliable networks will drive the improvement of existing services and the creation of many new ones. Having such broad, fast networks will facilitate much of what has already been discussed above and make it sufficiently reliable. Better wifi will also augment this, leading to a surge in rich, video led services.

• 6G could also make an appearance in 2025. No, there won’t be a 6G roll out, but we will get to see more of that 6G might look like. The US has already revealed its strategies for 6G, which could give it a significant head start in the race to lead the development of future telecom networks. Among the elements expected to benefit from 6G are cognitive applications, global 3D connectivity and extended reality (XR), highlighting how it will transform digital experiences. These and other emerging technologies require superfast speeds, massive bandwidth and low latency to ensure those experiences live up to expectations. This undoubtedly bears similarities to the obstacles previously faced by VR, which was let down by the capability limitations imposed by 4G connectivity. One of the biggest challenges facing telecommunications companies during the rollout of 6G will be handling the logistics surrounding the frequency spectrum.

• More efficient networks will help us move towards this 6G world. Many services are held back by network latency issues. Even super-fast 5G is hampered when user numbers are high. It is overcoming this that will help shape the services that can be sold to consumers. Making networks more efficient will see AR, VR, metaverse and other services really fly. We aren’t there yet, but we may be by the end of 2025.

SECURITY

Fraud in online services is a given: there is no way round it, as fast as new anti-fraud tools arrive, the fraudsters find new ways to scam the system. As new services appear, so new opportunities arise for such poor behaviour – and more tools are needed to fight the fraudsters.

• Ad fraud and deception fraud are likely to grow. DCB fraud is sort of under control thanks to Evina and MCP et al and their use of AI to watch for frauds. But that is now driving new fraud in content services that use ad fraud and deception frauds to dupe users. As technology advances and new services appear, so too will new frauds. While the anti-fraud and cybersecurity companies will continue to innovate, there is always a degree of catch up being played as fraudsters seek to remain one step ahead.

• DCB fraud meanwhile will be ever present. As new markets/regions are opened up and as new services emerge that are DCB billed, so fraud will happen. There is a robust anti-fraud industry in action already, so damage should be limited, but watchfulness will be key.

• Messaging Fraud and pumping – as Business messaging becomes ever-more popular, increasingly there is a lot of artificial traffic inflation (AIT) going on and SMS pumping. It’s a conundrum as it costs someone – consumer, SPs, aggregators – but MNOs have no vested interest in fighting it as they make money from it. This is going to be the big story in messaging. It’s an open secret that there were people openly selling pumped SMS traffic, but eventually it will eat itself.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AI underpins its all. AI already plays a significant role in all facets of digital life, but in telemedia pretty much every aspect of how it will run and how it will develop will be driven in some way by AI. Payments are already policed by AI, but the data gleaned from how people pay and for what will be parsed by AI to create an even better and more granular – and therefore personalised – view of the consumer.

This, in turn, will drive AI to be used to create everything from marketing messaging and materials to content to games to which payment method(s) are offered to any particular customer at any given time. AI will also be used to create the chatbots and video chatbots that interact with consumers, creating massive efficiency gains for companies that drives the customer interaction end of the sector.

AI, too will, fight fraud, improve network efficiency and create the services that will sell.

In short, telemedia in 2025 is going to be an AI business – so get on board.