“Internet of Vehicles”–Owner Stickiness is the Key

The "Internet of Vehicles" is not a strange concept to the Chinese. At every single “Internet of Things” or Smart City summit, Smart Vehicles and Transportation has become part of the "Internet of Things" and a hot topic with billion dollar market along with smart devices in buildings and in grid talks.

The “Internet of Vehicles” turns your car into a service, and more efficiently utilizes the car. Peer-to-peer car sharing, where people rent out their own cars into a network can lead to even more efficient uses of personal vehicles. Ah, and you might even want to “Friend” your car as part of your social network community?

So what kind of services the owner of a car need?

The success of Apple has been broadly studied by enterprises. Apple’s lead, while not insurmountable, can be attributed to a few things, including a lineup of products that is broad yet connected, a meticulously controlled retail experience, and a very particular brand of leadership at the top. Most of all, it is the stickiness Apple created by the app store and the value chain that perfectly hit the human excitement button of feeling privileged by owning a iProduct. That is exactly the kind of services The “Internet of Vehicles” needed to offer to the vehicle owners.

Apple became a platform. The app store continues to be profit after the tiny mobile device was sold. None of the mobile phone manufactures had ever imagined before. The “Internet of Vehicles” services need to adapt the platform model just as Apple did in the mobile phone space. Service providers need to learn from the Apple eco-system and create the owner stickiness. “Who you are”, “Where you are”, “What you are thinking about”, “What you are doing”, it is the human nature to “share” and “brag”. There is not much difference if you are holding your iphone or sitting in your “icar” when it comes to The “Internet of Things”.