Alright, the speech in itself didn’t make a lot of sense, but here it is, in text. The audio is here…
P Diddy: I Am An MVNO
“As I stand here, the best way to describe how I feel is that I’ve arrived this morning to a party that’s been going on all night. I’ve been doing my thing in records, films and acting, while you all have been playing with your cellphones. Now all of a sudden, it is all about the cellphones...cellphones, cellphones, cellphones. Now I know the party has been going on for some time, and even though I am late, I am right on time. You know the party doesn’t usually start before I get there....
So let’s take this party to the next level, ‘cause in a minute cellphones are going to let people listen to my music, watch my films, buy my clothes and learn about my politics. Wherever they are, whenever they want.
But how will we do that. We could all walk through the newsstand and tell the guy: we want one copy of every magazine, so that we have all the info we have. But nobody does that. We read magazines so that they filter all the cr*ap out there and tell you what you need. We pay them money to do this...we trust them.
People are going to buy phones, subscriptions and downloads…a thing that they want, but someone has to tell them what they need. That’s what they will pay for…
Recently, I was talking to someone, and they mentioned the term MVNO, and not wanting to appear stupid, I waited a few minutes if I could figure out what it meant. I thought it was a new artist or something. But then I asked, what’s an MVNO? A mobile virtual operator, someone who sells the phone serviecs without actually owning the network. And I thought, you mean, you could sell a phone service without owning the network? I’m in the wrong business...and then, it dawned onn me..I am, and M V N O...and I might be the biggest.
What do I mean by that? I don’t have the spectrum, I don’t own the network infrastructure, I don’t make customer service calls, but I do have subscribers. I have tens of millions of thee, subscribers, who spent billions of dollars every year on music, on fast foods, on cosmetics, on soda, and yes, on consumer electronics and wireless communications technology. I know where they live, what they like, what they eat and what they drink, I know what they wear, and more importantly for you, I know how to communicate to them, I know how to talk to them.
The reason why they’re mine, I mean my subscribers, is because I know how to listen to them. About 90 percent of America are music listeners, but only about 15 percent of them are active record buyers. Although the record industry is having a tough time selling more records every year, the music business is bigger than ever. If there was no music, there would be no iPod, there would be no iTunes, there would be no MTV, there would be no BET, there would be no Clear Channel, there would be no XM or Sirius, and there would be no ringtones, no ringback tones. Nothing sells stuff the way music does.
Try sitting in a car with no CD player or radio or 10 speakers...it won’t be easy. Soon we will be able to sell them a phone that doesn’t sound like a [what?] that sits in the pocket of their new Sean John collection.
Most of you are familiar with the book “Understanding Media” by Marshall McLuhan. It sometimes comes as a shock to be reminded that in operational and practical terms, the medium is the message. He was right...in 1960 elections, the people who listened to radio through Nixon won. people who watch TV said Kenndy won. How you received the information changed the way you perceived the information…
Every medium is defined by the kind of customers who embrace it. Pacman and Donkey Kong gave a new way for us to understand games. Cable and satellite TV gave us hundreds of TV channels which nobody felt the need to watch. Nobody watched Comedy Central until they gave you South Park.
People always say that content is king, but there’s a lot of content out there and it can’t all be king. Venus and Serena Williams revolutionized tennis, Michael Jordan revolutionized basketball beyond recognition, and Mohammad Ali went from a boxer, to a champion, to the greatest of all time. They aren’t just players of the game, they are the game.
So if content is king, but you don’t just want king. You want king-kong content. And as far as music business is concerned, where McLuhan made a point, with each movie, record and TV show, and cellphone have a profound effect on the audience. MTV and BET changed the way people looked at music and the role it played in their life...and their lifestyle. Millions of girls wanted to dress like Madonna, and Run DMC exposed suburban kids to the urban culture for the first time.
The country which has embraced the new communications first becomes the dominant culture...cellphone, and now picture and video phones. Youth culture has diven the mobile culture to a multi-billion dollar industry. But to move from here, mobile phones need to evolve. My company and other can take advantage of the power of the latest 3G technologies that allow customers to easily use and virally spread the content.
....I give them want they want, I show them the way..I am the Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Now back to the party that I was talking about. As you all know, I didn’t throw this party, but I am glad to be invited…