The University of Technology Sydney’s Communications Law Centre (CLC) and Leadbolt, a web and mobile advertising business, have announced that they will be working together to create a standard for mobile commerce.
According to professor Michael Fraser, the director of the CLC, this new partnership will help to provide support for important and timely research. He explained that “Technology is now moving so fast that government legislation and market regulation of the m-commerce industries are effectively some 10 to 15 years behind the market.”
Fraser also highlighted the fact that market analysis has determined that the increasing popularity of mobile commerce has become a significant driver for the worldwide and digital economy. He indicated that in 2011, there were 1.2 billion mobile broadband subscriptions, and there was an investment of $6.3 billion (USD) into this channel.
He also explained that the new partnership would be looking into the existing mobile commerce industry framework both in Australia as well as internationally, with the purpose of developing standards across the industry, as well as codes of conduct so that best practice legislation and market regulation can be properly created. He also said that they intend to focus particularly on the creation of consumer protection and right strategies.
According to the CEO of Leadbolt, Dale Carr, his company – which was originally founded in Australia, but that now operates within the U.S. – asked the university to join the partnership after execs in the company had identified the enormity of the mobile commerce impact on society, and recognized that consumers, government, and mobile commerce businesses would not be able to fully benefit from the industry unless proper regulatory frameworks and legislation were set into place to make certain that it had a viable future in the long-term.
