A Detailed Look at Google’s Acquisition of AdMob

So, Google has acquired AdMob. Is it a big deal? Yes, it is. Will it have a big impact on mobile advertising industry? Yes, it will. Is it surprising? No, it is not. Let me tell you why.

Regular readers of this blog know a thing or two about AdMob. It is one of the few mobile advertising companies that I’ve written a lot about on this blog. Anyone who has seen the growth chart of AdMob will hardly find it surprising that a giant like Google has acquired the company. After all, the company has served billions of mobile ads and its clientele include big names like Yahoo.

AdMob specializes in web display ads and application display ads. When mobile users surf the net or play a mobile video game, they will be served targeted ads. Google, as you know, specializes in search ads. When mobile users search for something on the internet, the results page they get will contain targeted ads. Now, combine these two technologies and you have a killer mobile marketing strategy.

Google has spent an astronomical $750 million on this acquisition. Some people think it has spent a lot of money to acquire what many perceive a small business. I do not think so. Google, as we all know, has been trying to make its presence felt in mobile advertising market for quite some time now. While it is certainly seen as a force to be reckoned with, its success on the mobile market is nowhere near its success on the internet. So, acquiring a company like AdMob can help Google establish itself on the mobile phone advertising market.

Moreover, this acquisition will give Google a chance to understand the dynamics of the mobile advertising market. It now has access to a huge amount of data which includes the usage data of various mobile applications. It now knows what kind of mobile apps are preferred by mobile users and what kind of ads have the best conversion rate. With this knowledge, Google can fine tune its advertising strategies and get even better results. So, in my opinion, this acquisition can only be good for Google in the long run.

If you think about it, what Google has done is not surprising at all. You are a new entrant to the market. You see that a number of players are already going strong. You can grab a big share of the market by either competing with them or by buying them out. When you have enough money to buy half of your competition, the latter sounds like a much better option, don’t you think? Something tells me that we’ll see more such acquisitions in the recent future.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google.

0 comments.

Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards 2009 – The Search for the Best Mobile Websites, Mobile Games, and Mobile Applications Continues

Smaato, a pioneer in the field of mobile advertising, has announced the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award 2009. The event was a great success last year and garnered a lot of attention. The event had more than 100 entrants and the feedback was mostly positive. Considering the fact that the event was first-of-its-kind, the reception was quite good. So, the company has decided to make the event bigger and better this year.

The competition has been divided into three different categories – iPhone, Mobile Applications (including games), and Mobile Web. The participation is free and it does not cost you a dime. If you think your mobile website, application, or game is really cool, you can participate in this event. The deadline for submissions ends on the 9th of October, 2009. You can find more details here.

A winner will be chosen from each category and all three winners will be invited to be a part of Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. Also, just like last year, Smaato will introduce the winners to the VCs who attend the event. Additional prizes include free tickets for Mobile World Congress, exhibition stands at M Days 2010 in Munich, and more. If you remember, Dial Plus was the winner at last year’s event and it has gone on to become very popular in a relatively short period of time.

Smaato has formed an impressive jury which includes some well known names from Mobile Marketer, Mobile Entertainment, VentureBeat, Mobile Monday, Infinita, Norwest Venture Partners, MSearchGroove, MobiAdNews, and more.

Like I have repeatedly said, events like this are very good for mobile advertising industry as they promote healthy competition and innovation. Most importantly, for up and coming mobile startups, events like these could be a great launch pad. So, in my opinion, these types of events are a sign of the growth of mobile advertising as an industry.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Mobile Events.

0 comments.

Yahoo’s plans to dominate mobile internet

For long I’ve been focusing on Yahoo’s growth in the mobile internet market. From innovative mobile applications to strategic partnerships with companies all over the world, Yahoo is going great guns in the mobile internet market.

Recently, I read an article on Yahoo in a PR site which explained Yahoo’s plans in the mobile world. Usually I read such press releases with a pinch of salt, as things are often hyped and there is a lot of jargon involved. But surprisingly, this was very simple and to the point. I noticed a couple of very good points which I’d like to share with you.

Yahoo’s policy as far as mobile internet is simple. It focuses on three things.

1. Offering the best possible search facility in mobile phones

2. Serving the customers with relevant, targeted, useful ads

3. Being utmost careful in handing users’ private information and take their privacy very seriously

In my opinion, this is perhaps the best possible way to reach the top spot in mobile advertising industry. In Yahoo’s case, it becomes even more important to reach the top spot in the mobile internet market, as it has a point to prove to a lot of people. Ever since the Yahoo-Microsoft deal failed, people have been skeptical about Yahoo and there is a lot of pressure from its investors too. In such a scenario, grabbing the top spot, even if it’s only in the mobile space and not in the online space, could prove a thing or two to people.

I think Yahoo has everything to become the top dog in the business. It has useful mobile applications like onePlace, oneSearch, and oneConnect, all of which have been received well by mobile users. It also has made partnerships with a lot of companies and it is now said to have the potential to reach a whopping 600 million users. The only thing that needs to be seen is how Yahoo competes with a company that is hell bent on gaining the top spot in the mobile industry – Google.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Yahoo, Mobile Web.

0 comments.

Has Google lived up to its expectations?

I never thought such a day would come, at least not so early. Google is being questioned by people around the world for something which promised to take the mobile phone industry to a whole new level – Google Android. When it started, everything looked rosy. Google developed Android and promised that its source code will be made available to programmers around the world, it will help them come up with good mobile applications, and all that jazz. And it’s been quite a while since all this happened. So, developers are raising questions as to what Google is up to anyway.

Agreed, it came up with the software development kit in November, but the kit hasn’t lived up to its expectations. And then, Google came up with the announcement that the kit is a “work in progress”. Most importantly, the kit doesn’t have the source code, which Google promised would be there for everyone to see.

Now, here’s an interesting situation. The big G is taking its own time to actually deliver the goods and this has put Microsoft and Yahoo, the good old rivals, in a comfortable position. While Google stole the thunder with its Android, Microsoft has been working its way up slowly with its Windows Mobile Operating system for around five years now. Most importantly, tens of thousands of applications, which can run in Windows Mobile OS, are available in the market now. Also, Yahoo has announced a software development kit of its own which will help developers come up with apps that can run on a huge number of mobile phones. So, where does that leave Google?

Google has been put under enormous pressure to deliver the goods, and that too quickly. Microsoft and Yahoo are slowly but surely working their way up in the mobile industry and this has made people complain about Google. Now, the word “complain”, I thought, was only meant for Microsoft. What say?

Categories: Google.

1 comment.

Mobile social networking could be the future

Everyone talks about mobile advertising these days and most importantly, everyone, irrespective of their knowledge in this issue, seems to have an opinion on the same. Marketing experts world over say that mobile advertising could be huge and one of the most important reasons is the rising awareness on social networking sites.

Social networking has become hugely popular all over the world. Apart from big markets like the U.S. and Europe, the numbers from countries like India and Brazil are staggering and it only shows people’s growing interest in this phenomenon called social networking. This is why mobile advertising could be huge. Social networking, by definition, is about people that want to keep in touch with their friends and share info among them by the hour. Now, you can’t expect someone to roam around with a laptop all the time and this is where mobile phone comes into the picture. If social networking sites can be made easily accessible on mobile phones, the response would be tremendous. The mobile phone is always with you and it will help you keep in touch with your friends by the minute through these sites. Already, lots of mobile applications support this facility and you also have mobile social networking sites from Facebook and the like.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that mobile advertising could be twice as profitable as conventional advertising, as the ads are targeted and more personal. However, it all depends on how easy the user finds it to surf the web on his mobile phone. The most important thing is the quality and speed of mobile internet. The speed needs to be improved and the screens need to be widened in order to give the users a rich experience. As of now, surfing Facebook in an ordinary phone is way difficult than doing it in an iPhone. So, the focus should be on making mobile internet access simpler for the users. The more we see phones like the iPhone, the easier it will be for the advertisers to reach out to the end users. One thing’s for sure – the future is gonna be exciting.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Mobile Social Networking.

0 comments.

Older »