Watch Ads, Earn Data: Economics of Mobile Data Rewards
Watch Ads, Earn Data: Economics of Mobile Data Rewards
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观看广告，赚取数据：移动数据奖励的经济学
DOI：
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发表时间：
2018
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
R. Berry
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文献类型：
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作者：
Haoran Yu;Ermin Wei;R. Berry
尽管全球移动流量一直在快速增长，但据估计服务收入已近乎达到饱和点。Strategy Analytics预测全球移动服务收入将在2021年达到峰值，其数值仅比2018年高出3%[1]。这导致移动运营商寻求新的收入来源，一种有效的方法是向移动用户提供移动数据奖励。具体而言，用户在观看运营商推送的移动广告后可获得免费移动数据，相应的广告商根据广告观看量向运营商付费。数据奖励方案可为运营商、用户和广告商实现“三赢”的结果。首先，运营商可通过移动广告将其移动服务货币化（据估计2017年全球移动广告市场收入达到800亿美元）。其次，用户获得免费移动数据以支持对数据需求大的移动应用。第三，当用户因观看广告而获得奖励时，广告商可提高其广告效果（这种广告类型被称为激励广告）。此外，由于广告商允许想要获取奖励的用户控制是否以及何时观看广告，用户能够更好地参与广告互动。
越来越多的企业进入这个市场。一些公司（例如，Unlockd、Aquto、SOCIFI和ClickWings）为数据奖励提供技术支持，包括开发展示广告和记录奖励数据量的移动应用[2]。一些领先的移动网络运营商，如美国的威瑞森（Verizon）、英国的乐购移动（Tesco Mobile）、西班牙的西班牙电信（Telefonica）和澳大利亚的Lebara Mobile，已与这些公司合作提供数据奖励。
在我们的研究中，我们考虑现有数据套餐，研究一个容量受限的运营商的最优数据奖励设计。用户可通过订阅数据套餐或观看广告获取数据。运营商的总收入由用户的订阅费和广告商购买广告位的费用组成。我们分析使运营商总收入最大化的最优策略。特别是，我们回答以下两个问题：（i）运营商如何为用户选择单位数据奖励（即观看一个广告所奖励的数据量）？（ii）运营商如何为广告商选择广告价格（即购买一个广告位的价格）？需要注意的是，一些参考文献，例如[3]和[4]，研究了提供商同时提供收费服务和基于广告的服务的市场。
Although global mobile traffic has been growing rapidly, the service revenue is estimated to have nearly reached a saturation point. Strategy Analytics predicts that the global mobile service revenue will peak in 2021 at a value that is only 3% above that in 2018 [1]. This has led mobile operators to seek new revenue streams, and one effective approach is to offer mobile data rewards to mobile users. Specifically, the users are rewarded with free mobile data after viewing the mobile ads delivered by the operators, and the corresponding advertisers pay the operators based on the ad viewership. The data rewarding scheme can achieve a “win-win-win” outcome for the operators, users, and advertisers. First, the operators can monetize their mobile service via the mobile advertising (it was estimated that the mobile advertising market’s worldwide revenue reached $80 billion in 2017). Second, the users get free mobile data to support the data-hungry mobile applications. Third, the advertisers can improve their ads’ effectiveness when the users are rewarded for viewing ads (this advertising type is known as incentivized advertising). Moreover, since the advertisers allow the users, who want to earn rewards, to have the control over whether and when to view ads, the users can better engage with the ads. There has been a growing number of businesses entering this market. Some companies (e.g., Unlockd, Aquto, SOCIFI, and ClickWings) offer technical support for data rewarding, including the development of mobile apps which display ads and record the amount of rewarded data [2]. Some leading mobile network operators, such as Verizon (in the United States), Tesco Mobile (in the United Kingdom), Telefonica (in Spain), and Lebara Mobile (in Australia), have collaborated with these companies to offer data rewards. In our work, we study a capacity-constrained operator’s optimal data rewarding design, considering its existing data plan. The users can obtain data by either subscribing to the data plan or viewing ads. The operator’s total revenue consists of the users’ subscription fee and the advertisers’ payment for purchasing the ad slots. We analyze the operator’s optimal strategy that maximizes its total revenue. In particular, we answer the following two questions: (i) How does the operator choose the unit data reward (i.e., the amount of data rewarded for viewing one ad) for the users? (ii) How does the operator choose the ad price (i.e., the price for purchasing one ad slot) for the advertisers? Note that a few references, e.g., [3] and [4], studied markets in which providers offer both a fee-based service and an ad-based