Analysis of Mobile Data Service Value Chain Based on Two-sided Markets Theory

In recent years, due to the rapid evolution of communication technology, the mobile data service is a newly emerging and rapid developing segment. Waning ARPU pushes the telecommunication operators to search for other sources of income. Mobile data services were expected to foster Industry growth. As to the brilliant prospect for data services, many industries expect to join this arena. The mobile commerce value chain is then formed. This paper analyses the major players that form part of the mobile data industry value chain. The network platform of mobile data services platforms play crucial roles on this value chain. In this paper, we figure out that the mobile data services market is a typical two-sided market. And we use two-sided markets model to fit the mobile data service value chain. To explore the cooporation in the value chain and suitable price policy what promote the mobile data service developement, we review the experience of NTT DoCoMo. As a result, this paper point out the members of value chain should work together and the mobile operators acting as the core mobile platform owner, should perform suitable price policy to unleash the potential of mobile data service.