Do you turn on your favorite music station, set the alarm, or put on your face mask before crawling onto bed? Perhaps plug your phone to charge or check that your doors are locked.
Like what some of you may do, I usually check Facebook one last time before closing my eyes.
Yesterday, while looking through my friends' posts, I came across an article shared by two of my friends. The title reads "S'pore telcos to start charging for every email sent, received."
It went on to says emails sent to local and overseas email addresses will be 13 cents and 32 cents each respectively. Attachments will incur additional charges at 1 cent per 100 bytes.
This came after news broke that local telcos are charging users for sending messages using Whatsapp. And telcos are also at charging users for each Facebook status update in the future.
This piece of information was posted on a third party website.
When company starts charging for what's has been free all along without a corresponding increase in value to customers, it always cause an uproar.
But there's no smoke without fire, no waves without wind. On further reading, the reason became clear.
While attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Singtel's CEO, Chua Sock Koong asked the regulators in Australia to give carriers like Optus (Singtel's subsidiary in Australia) the right to charge Whatsapp and Skype for using their networks. Otherwise, carrier would be unwilling to invest in upgrading their networks.
According to Sydney Morning Herald, this was what she said:
"The main problem we have as an industry is we have been unable to monetize this increased demand. We must create sustainable revenue models."
This piece of information quickly became viral and netizens bombarded the telco for this.
Based on her message, this is likely what they intend or want to do and what could happens. When telcos get the right to charge Whatsapp and Skype, these service providers may have no choice but to start charging or charge its users a higher price, if they are already charging.
Could her message be taken out of context? Shortly after, Singtel clarified on its Facebook page that they do not plan to charge their subscribers separately for the use of services like Whatsapp. Unfortunately, no amount of explanations seem to appease its subscribers.
Singtel's Whatsapp service for those subscribers with no data plan was seen as a prelude to their intention.
It's a PR nightmare for something gone wrong and gone viral. It's also an attest to the power of social media.
Ms Chua said that they were unable to monetize the increased demand.
In historic days, people communicated using pigeon, fire and sending messenger. When paper was invented, people started writing letters. Then we got telegram and telephone. As technology improved, we got pager and mobile phones. Next comes the internet age with email and a host of online services.
If you see that more people are using a particular service, you may think that the demand is increasing. Now there are more people watching movie on their mobile, more people sending text messages than calling, more people sending email than snail mail.
Instead of thinking how to monetize the increased demand, why not ask why more people are using this service? Take it a step further, ask why is fewer people using my services? There's always some reasons why something happens.
That brings us to another interesting idea.
Why?
Have you ever wonder why all the experts working in the telco industry did not think of inventing a service like Whatsapp and Skype? If they did, why they were not launched? Why disruptive innovations always come from outside the industry?
For a simple reason - they are too busy protecting their turf and cash cows. They are afraid of killing what makes them the most profit NOW.
Your competitors
Many business owners are wary of competitors in their industries. They copy what their competitors are doing and try to do it a little better.
If competitor A gives this, you give a little bit more. If competitor B charge this price, you charge a little less.
But they are not the one you should fear and guard against. Your competitors are probably busy protecting their cash cows, like you.
You should be scared, real scared of some young kids working quietly in his underground garage on something that will disrupt your industry and make you redundant.
Right
And asking for the right to charge others is the worst strategy you can ever use. You have to earn the right and not expected it as a handout.
What to do?
Now, stop protecting your turf like what your competitors are doing and think about how you can kill your cash cow before someone do this to you.
That's the way to stay on top of the game in business.
P.S. The worst enemy is not your competitors or some kids working on the next breakthrough innovation. It is YOURSELF.
P.P.S. I'll be conducting a training for professionals in the property industry. If you have friends in this line and would like to be updated, please get them to leave their email address in the comment box below. Alternatively, they can email to me at [email protected]