MOBUS from Vodone - A New Entrant to the Chinese Mobile Internet Advertising Market

Vodone Group of China has entered the mobile advertising market with the launch of its new platform – MOBUS. It is a part of Vodone’s newly upgraded 1bus platform, which also has another platform that focuses solely on online advertising namely VBUS.

Vodone says that the business model of MOBUS is similar to that of AdMob’s. The platform will integrate a huge amount of mobile phones’ application GPRS flow volume and WAP flow volume. It aims to bring mobile advertisers and their target customers closer through the mobile internet medium. It aims, in particular, to improve the way mobile ads are placed so that advertisers can reach their target customer base more efficiently. The new platform boasts of a highly reliable technical support, a wide range of advertising forms, and high quality mobile internet advertisement services.

MOBUS connects 10 million mobile terminals and provides over 20 million mobile internet ad spaces. It is also estimated that it enjoys close to 100 million high quality data flows every day, which makes the platform one of China’s largest, most dedicated platforms for mobile web advertising.

Speaking of MOBUS, the Board Chairman of Vodone Group says that the platform will monetize close to 70% of free mobile GPRS flow. Industry analysts in China are of the opinion that the platform could be a success, given the fact that China has an incredibly large mobile phone user base (close to 780 million people) and the value of mobile phone media has increased considerably of late. Moreover, a recent report from AC Nielson says that the chances of a normal mobile phone user turning into a potential buyer are significantly higher than the chances of a normal web user turning into a potential buyer. So, experts are of the opinion that more and more people would be interested in investing in mobile ads as opposed to traditional web ads in the future.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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Apple to Shut Down Quattro Wireless Network

It seems protectionist behavior comes to Apple naturally. Right from censoring mobile applications to prohibiting the use of third party development tools, it has done pretty much everything it could to make sure its platform stays a carefully monitored, closed one. Just when everyone thought it could not get any better at the art of protectionism, Apple has done something incredible – it has decided to shut down Quattro Wireless network.

Yes; you read it right. Apple has stated that it will shut down Quattro Wireless network – to acquire which it paid a whopping $275 million – and focus only on the iAd network. The mobile giant has stated that it will shut down Quattro on September 30, after which it will not accept any new campaigns for the network. The reason behind this move is hardly surprising – Apple wants to promote its own advertising network – the iAd network.

Industry insiders say that Apple has high hopes for the iAd network, despite the fact that the network has been going through some rough patches ever since its inception. Apple, in its official statement, has stated that it firmly believes that the iAd platform is the best in the world and it will focus all its resources to promote it.

A lot of people, including mobile app developers, are not too fond of Apple’s protectionist moves. Amazingly, however, these very moves have helped Apple to keep its competitors at bay. A very good example is the case of Blackberry maker Research In Motion. The company recently tried to acquire a mobile advertising network to strengthen its position in the mobile market. It approached, among others, popular mobile ad company Millennial Media. None of the companies, however, showed green signal for the proposed acquisition, as they felt the move could antagonize Apple. It just goes to show that Apple’s mobile platform is still considered one of the very best by a lot of companies on the market.

Some feel that this move from Apple could come as a boon for many small mobile advertising networks. Quattro had nearly 7% share in the market, which is now up for grabs. Competing networks will definitely try to make use of this situation and strengthen their position. So, in my opinion, this move from Apple, protectionist as it may be, is not so bad for the mobile advertising market.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Apple.

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RIM Looking to Acquire a Mobile Advertising Network?

The latest news in the mobile world is that Research In Motion, the famed Blackberry maker, is looking to buy a mobile advertising network.

RIM firmly believes that the only way to take on its arch rivals Apple and Google is to buy a mobile ad network which is big enough to challenge the networks of its rivals. It is said the company has been negotiating with Millennial Media, a Baltimore based advertising network. The talks, however, were not a success as the ad network expected a huge sum – somewhere in the range of $400-500 million.

RIM, understandably, is concerned about paying such a huge price as it believes that it is too expensive a price to pay to acquire the network. If you remember, Apple paid close to $300 million to acquire Quattro and Google paid an astronomical $750 million to acquire AdMob.

Millennial Media, according to sources, is not very interested in the deal as it believes that it has a bright future as an independent company. Also, it believes that an acquisition by RIM would limit its ability to serve targeted ads to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod platforms, which would eventually affect its relationship with Apple. So, it is not willing to give the nod unless it gets the right price.

Since the talks with Millennial Media were less than satisfactory, RIM is also believed to be looking for other mobile advertising networks like Greystripe and JumpTap.

The reason why RIM is so desperate to acquire a mobile ad network is not hard to understand. Its share in the global smartphone market slumped from 19.1 percent to 17.8 percent recently and most of its latest launches like Blackberry Storm, Storm2, and Blackberry Torch have not been a great success. So, to catch up with the rapid growth of Google Android and Apple OS, it believes it has to have its own mobile advertising network. While both Millennial Media and Research In Motion have declined to comment publicly on the developments, it is said that we could expect some big news, particularly from the RIM camp, in the near future.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, RIM.

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Voice Keywords from Go800 - A Mobile-Centric Approach to Direct Response Marketing

Go800, a subsidiary of mobile media services and solutions provider GoIP, has launched an innovative, patent-pending mobile direct response service called Voice Keywords. This service intends to bring vendors and their target customers closer and make the process of direct response marketing simpler.

Voice Keywords is basically a text-to-action version of direct response marketing. Vendors can use certain keywords related to their business in their ads and customers can respond to those ads by texting the keyword to Go800. When they do, a representative from the vendors’ response team immediately gets in touch with them and offers more information about the product.

For example, a mortgage lender can lease the keyword ‘mortgage’ and use it in his marketing campaign. Customers, on seeing the ad, can simply text the word ‘mortgage’ to 46800 (Go800). Immediately, Go800 will call the customers on their mobile phone and connect them to a representative of the mortgage lender. All this happens within a few seconds.

Vendors can lease keywords that they want to use in their marketing campaigns. Go800 says that a lot of keywords, both generic and brand-specific, have been already taken by a number of advertising agencies and businesses.

I think it is a good idea which could become popular with vendors if pitched the right way. There are two reasons why I think this idea will click.

1. It makes it easier for a potential customer to respond to an advert. As a vendor, you cannot expect someone to see your ad, call the toll free number, wait patiently to get in touch with your representative, and get the information. It takes time, which could make some people lose their interest halfway. With Voice Keywords, all a customer needs to do is text a keyword to get a call from a representative instantly.

2. A lot of people do not have smartphones or high end phones with mobile web facility. They will not be able to visit your website immediately and get the information they want. Text messaging, on the other hand, is a facility that is available in almost all types of mobile phones. So, a potential customer can easily text a keyword and get the information he wants in a matter of few seconds.

Go800 plans to make it a global service and is currently building case studies to show potential vendors how they can benefit from such a service.

The idea of a company calling back a customer is certainly new for a lot of people in the industry. So, it might be difficult to convince them to come out of the ‘customer-calling-toll-free-number’ mindset and give this new idea a try. I, however, strongly feel that new ideas like this will become popular in the near future as businesses start looking for ways to become more and more customer friendly.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Indian Mobile Advertisers Await the Arrival of 3G Services

I have always stated that India is one place where mobile advertising could grow really, really big. A recent report from FICCI-KPMG supports by claim again. It says that nearly 80% of mobile users in India do not mind getting ads on their mobile phones if they get something in return – free music downloads, video games, and stuff like that. More importantly, nearly 50% of mobile users say that they would view the ads they get on their phones.

This news could not have come at a better time for mobile advertisers. 3G services are going to be launched in India by the end of 2010, after which mobile users will be able to access mobile websites and WAP sites at lightning fast speeds. Though India entered the 3G domain in 2008, only the government owned operator, BSNL, was allowed to provide 3G services to customers. So, a huge section of mobile users, who use the services of private players, had to wait for a long time. Later this year, private players will be allowed to provide 3G service, after which there could be a huge increase in the number of 3G users in India.

What makes this report even more special is that Indian mobile market is growing at an astonishing pace. In 2001, there were only about 5 million mobile users in India. Within a decade, the number has increased to a mind-boggling 635 million, which means the market has grown at a jaw-dropping pace. So, India is potentially the biggest market for mobile advertisers all over the world.

Indian mobile advertisers feel that the introduction of 3G services will allow them to reach out to their target customer base more efficiently. So far, SMS advertising has remained the popular choice of advertisers all over the country as a large number of mobile users do not have high-end phones or high speed data connections. The situation, however, is changing rapidly. The increasing number of high-end phone users and the introduction of affordable 3G services mean that advertisers will now be able to reach out to their customers through video based and MMS based ads. So, Indian mobile advertising industry is awaiting the arrival of private players in the 3G domain eagerly.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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