Amdocs' Qpass Digital Commerce Solution Reaches $2.5 Billion Milestone

Amdocs expects that in 2007 alone its Qpass digital commerce solution will process more than $1 billion in premium digital content, an increase of approximately 40 percent over 2006. This growth is fueled by an increase of the number of mobile subscribers using premium data services, higher priced content, and stronger marketing efforts by content providers.

The number of mobile subscribers using premium data services has been increasing steadily as users move beyond basic data services such as text messaging and "graduate" to using more sophisticated applications such as mobile productivity applications and full-track music downloads. These more advanced services are also more expensive, and Amdocs has seen the average price per premium content transaction go up from $3.18 in January to $3.49 in June. Direct-to-consumer, or so-called "off-portal" sales in which consumers purchase premium services or products directly from content providers and pay via their service provider billing mechanisms, have also grown as a result of stronger marketing efforts. As of June 2007, off-portal sales grew 15 percent over the previous 12 months contributing to the overall growth in the digital content market.

"We live in a digital content-rich world filled with a huge and ever growing variety of digital products and services," said Michael Matthews, chief marketing officer of Amdocs. "We believe digital content is a key part of the experience that a customer expects, and providers need to deliver the innovative services that consumers demand quickly and effectively. Qpass enables providers to create and provide access to new products and services, and market these in a fast, controlled way, as a result growing their average revenue per user (ARPU)."

Amdocs' award-winning Qpass platform helps service providers manage the entire digital commerce value chain, from content management, discovery, and merchandising, to delivery, billing, payment, settlement and customer care integration. Qpass provides this ability on a massive scale to service providers around the world by leveraging one of the world's largest transaction processing databases (nine terabyte) running on Linux. This provides functionality to process close to 700 transactions per minute at a very low cost, which is a critical factor for a successful digital commerce solution.
"To continue driving an increase in average revenue per user, a main focus for service providers and content providers should be on developing personalized, targeted advertising and promotions," said Linda Barrabee, program manager, consumer research, Yankee Group. "The Qpass digital commerce solution seems to have robust personalization and revenue assurance capabilities to support carriers' growth objectives."-Amdocs