Growing Adoption of IoT Devices to Drive the IoT Monetization Market
By Sharad Singh
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing enormously with its wide range of applications in numerous fields. The technology is nothing but an integration of several technologies that were already introduced earlier – sensors, switches, chips, actuators, communication protocols, and more. In other words, the technologies used in IoT are not new. What’s new is how to achieve lower costs, more intelligence, and giant new data streams. IoT must be able to provide results that generate measurable monetized business value. This value needs to convert to money by enhancing operational efficiency, reducing cost, and increasing income and revenue growth for customers. So how is this possible? With IoT monetization. It’s a process that involves assembling all the IoT technologies to unlock new ways to streamline businesses, improve service and enhance the lives of people. And at the core of these aspects are the opportunities for creating innovative business models which can solve issues and deliver new revenue streams.
The IoT monetization market is likely to witness a boom in the years to come. As per Allied Market’s report on IoT monetization market, this growth is due to the greater penetration of connected devices such as home automation products and the rise in adoption of cloud-based services. In addition, the growing number of smart city and smart lighting projects are likely to offer profitable growth opportunities to the IoT monetization industry. There are a few challenges faced by the industry that could hinder the growth. They include things such as poor internet connectivity in the underdeveloped and developing economies and the less acceptance of IoT-based solutions in the emerging economies.
As the IoT adoption constantly grows, new opportunities are bound to come up for companies to track and measure how consumers are using the products and services. Businesses in the space are looking to adopt various strategies that help businesses monetize IoT system for industries worldwide. Many are now implementing device-as-a-service model (DaaS) where they sell a subscription to their products to customers. The subscription encompasses the initial product purchase and later maintenance costs, allowing manufacturers to make money and have an incentive to keep their devices running. In May ‘18, Streamr, a software company recently formed a partnership with Nokia, a leader in mobile networks and OSIsoft, a manufacturer of application software for real-time data management to enhance IoT data utilization and monetization.
Streamr Collaborates with Nokia and OSIsoft The deal between Streamr and Nokia witnesses the creation of the next generation of mobile base stations. The partnership with Nokia allows Nokia’s customers to monetize their data while the partnership with OSIsoft allows focusing on enhanced sharing of real-time data between the organizations that OSIsoft currently serves with its PI System software. Streamr launched its real-time data Marketplace on-stage at Consensus in New York. The product is a web-based application which allows data providers to list real-time data streams, and data consumers to subscribe and pay for access to those data streams. The application has a pricing schedule and time-based access control coded in Ethereum smart contracts. The use of Streamr’s cryptographic token, DATA makes it possible to make data streams freely tradeable globally. Henri Pihkala, CEO of Streamr said, “The launch of our Marketplace represents a pivotal moment for our platform and underlines our commitment to driving the future of data utilization and monetization. To realize our vision of a sustainable, equitable, and efficient data economy, we needed to create a space in which buyers and sellers could come together freely, and today we have achieved just that.”