Mobile carriers hate Whatsapp, they also hate Viber, Skype, and Tango. They hate them because the former stripped them out of their SMS revenue (SMS revenue has fallen for the first time for 4% in 2013), and they hate them because the latter stripped them from mostly international minutes revenue. One of the main reasons, for example, why Canada ranks almost in the bottom 10 countries right now when it comes to the generosity of its mobile data plans is that hate.

Now, mobile carriers can challenge the current status quo, where any score for App Developers is a loss to them. They can make this whole hate-hate relationship into a win-win relationship. Here’s how: they can get as payment gateways.

In many developing countries, mobile carriers act as a payment gateway and it’s working very well for them. Unfortunately, mobile carriers in developed countries took a passive aggressive attitude towards apps in general and thus lost that payment gateway status to Google/Apple. That is a wrong strategy and it’s causing lost revenue. Mobile carriers still have leverage and they can negotiate great deals with App Developers and they can both make a lot of money. Not all the app money has to go to Google or Apple, mobile carriers can make money out of mobile apps too.

If mobile carriers drop that negative perception that app developers are eating out of their revenue, and start working with them, then there’ll be more money for everyone. Will it ever happen? I’m sure it will.

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