Focus Media’s revenue going downhill

It seems Focus Media has spammed its way to a decline in revenue. Focus Media, which was admonished severely for spamming millions of subscribers of China Mobile, has cut its earnings forecast for 2008.

The company has announced that they expect their full year revenue to be around $15 million – a figure that is awfully less than the previously announced $55 million. Focus Media stated the mobile spam controversy and its aftermath as reasons for the decline in revenue.

You spam 200 million subscribers with mobile ads and face a whopping $40 million decline in your revenue. Sounds fair, doesn’t it? I think this will be a huge lesson for mobile advertisers and network carriers all over the world and will make them take mobile spam more seriously, which is ultimately good for mobile users.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - Few thoughts

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about events in recent times, especially in the mobile advertising and marketing industry. A lot of big names in the industry were present at the event and they discussed a lot about mobile phone industry, particularly the future of mobile messaging – both text messaging (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS). Some interesting points were raised.

As expected, Asia continues to be the dominant player in the mobile phone market. The growth opportunity in countries like India is tremendous and it can easily be termed the most happening market as of now.

In China, mobile spam has increased significantly. Operators are trying hard to prevent mobile spam and working on it. Same is the case with mobile virus.

As far as services like mobile email, mobile instant messenger, and mobile videoconferencing are concerned, the Middle East is considered the biggest market and experts see a lot of scope for growth there.

Compared to the US, Europe is ahead in terms of services like mobile email, mobile music, and MMS and operators consider these services to be a regular source of revenue, apart from calling charges.

The experts stated that while text messaging is the major form of mobile advertising today, MMS and other services will also join the list soon as more and more mobile advertisers are looking to advertise via MMS and mobile internet in high-end phones.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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