If proof were ever needed on the success of BlueVia in getting operator APIs right, is the endorsement of Twitter in using BlueVia’s APIs. I show below the release and links to the Twitter weblog and BlueVia weblog. Tomorrow (Thursday 22nd Sept) Jose Valles, the head of BlueVia, will be presenting during my session at the SDP World Summit, on how he made this happen. This is a turning-point in telco APIs, finally a break-through not in technology, but in business models and being humble enough to work with third parties, rather than treat them as something to be “managed.” If you’re in the business of APIs, BlueVia is the one to watch. This is seminal moment for our industry.
BlueVia Release:
“Today represents another significant milestone in the growing maturity of the BlueVia developer platform from Telefónica. We are delighted to announce that BlueVia has successfully integrated with Twitter to enable O2 customers in the UK to interact with Twitter via MMS messaging.
From today O2 customers will be able to share photos on Twitter from any MMS capable mobile device.
O2 customers can simply associate their mobile number with their Twitter account on the Twitter website. Once complete, they can share what’s happening around them and send photos to Twitter by sending a message to short code 86444. Customers are charged at their standard MMS rate.
Jose Valles, Head of BlueVia, said: “We’re very excited about this new service and believe that both Twitter and O2 will see great benefits come of it. Our customers in the UK will satisfy a need of tweeting in certain specific circumstances and that, we expect, will help Twitter grow its presence in the UK. On the other side, we in BlueVia are satisfied by the service provided by our platform to Twitter engineers and are looking forward to spread this service to the whole footprint of Telefónica.”
The solution is powered by BlueVia’s MMS API. BlueVia APIs are also available to any 3rd party to take advantage of. These APIs not only offer great functionality, but also a risk free revenue generating business model.
Since BlueVia launched in private beta in late December 2010, there has been steady growth and continued innovation. Over the first five months of its life BlueVia has delivered two platforms releases, moving to open beta, adding Movistar Chile and Columbia, launching Android and .NET SDKs, connecting the Telefónica Germany App Store, exposing a new MMS API, introduced BlueVia Labs, and announced partnerships with Microsoft and the Israeli Mobile Association.”
I’ll have a weblog article by the end of the week on the SDP World Summit, where I’ll include a detailed review of Jose’s presentation. This is a critically important step forward for our industry in remaining relevant beyond connectivity.
The point is that currently telcos are enabling API’s for old enablers which already have indpendent APIs. In fact, SMS to TV, SMS to download tones, SMS for banking alerts, etc are implemented using API’s from SMS GW.
The real opportunity for telcos is opening with API’s from the day 0 new multimedia enablers as RCS-e. The idea of having IM, File Transfer, and live video to be used in Apps, or just creating use cases directly usable from the phonebook with APIs would be attractive for developers, and perhaps for come cases better approach than apps that include all the communications stuff.
Hi Juan,
Good point, but given RCS-e has zero market penetration, and from a customers’ perspective is a partially functional IM client, e.g. where’s the presence? Does it make sense to focus just on that part of the market? The SMS aggregators take in some cases a heavy tax (up to 50%) on the use of SMS APIs and have stifled innovation on the core competence of operators. Its time for operators to innovate and not rely on the existing cozy relationship with SMS aggregators that has stifled the market. Operators have 100s of APIs they can offer and should build businesses around them, rather than just sit there and wait for something to happen. Which of course includes RCS-e.
Alan