Mobile web to be worth $16 billion in 2011

Apparently, some people are confused as to why there is so much fuss about mobile web. Well; the short answer is - $16 billion.

1. Analysts say that mobile web will be worth a whopping $16 billion in just three years from now. Now, a $16 billion market is something that is too big for even giants like Google and Yahoo to be taken lightly.

2. Also, the size of the mobile phone market is three times bigger than the size of the web market. In other words, there are three mobile phone users for one PC user. Now, where do you see more opportunities?

3. Apple iPhone, in more ways than one, changed the landscape of the mobile world. Since its arrival, mobile internet usage has increased as most of the iPhone users regularly surf the net from their phone. Add more high-end phones like Nokia N95, Blackberry, and other such smart phones to the equation and you have the perfect recipe for a mobile web revolution.

4. With 3G and 3.5G networks, high speed mobile browsing is very much possible for mobile users. This will significantly increase the number of mobile web users in the future.

Hence, the excitement.

While Google is busy with Android, Yahoo has been silently working its way to the top. Both these companies have kept people guessing what would be their next move in the mobile world for quite some time now. In my opinion, Yahoo has a slight edge over Google as it’s already set its foot firmly in the mobile market. However, if Android could do to Google what the iPhone did for Apple, we’d be looking at a completely different situation. Either way, the competition is going to be interesting to watch.

Categories: Mobile Web.

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Mobile advertising in India will be a $100 million market soon

With over 270 million mobile users, India is considered probably the hottest mobile phone market in the world. With this being the case, mobile advertisers are trying to cash in on the opportunity, as expected. As we’ve already seen, Indian operators are excited about mobile advertising and they see it as a potential long term revenue generating model. So, it’s only a matter of time before mobile advertising takes off big time in India.

Industry experts have predicted that mobile phone advertising in India would be worth more than $100 million in just a few years from now. Considering the market is currently valued at a measly $1million, it looks like quite a prediction. But experts firmly believe that the Indian market has the potential to become one of the top players in the world as far as mobile advertising is concerned. However, there are a couple of issues which need to be addressed to make this happen.

First, the cost of mobile web should be brought down. Though data plans in India are pretty much affordable, mobile web is one area where they can bring down the cost furthermore to attract more users to use the mobile internet facility regularly.

Second, the issue of revenue sharing between advertisers and mobile operators is an area of concern. Right now, the ratio is 70:30 with 70% of the revenue going to mobile operators and 30% going to advertisers. Understandably, advertisers are not exactly happy with this disproportionate sharing and they want this ratio to be revised.

Experts say that if mobile operators and advertisers could address these issues, the market may reach the $100 million mark sooner than later.

I actually think the issues mentioned here are common for markets all over the world. Even in the U.S., not everyone with a web-enabled phone is enthusiastic about surfing the web regularly, as the data plans are pretty costly. And the issue of disproportionate revenue sharing is not unheard of either, as the spat between Verizon and Google is well known. So, it’s basically an inherent flaw in the system. Unless people address this issue, there will always be hurdles in the path.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Vodafone to launch nationwide marketing campaign to promote mobile browsing

If there is one company which is very excited about the future of mobile web, it’s Vodafone. It first started off by slashing its mobile internet tariff by almost 50%, as a result of which you can now get mobile broadband at £15 a month, and now it has announced that it will launch a marketing campaign to encourage people to use mobile internet more often.

This campaign will serve as an eye opener for common public and Vodafone intends to make people realize how easy it is to access the internet from their mobile phones. Vodafone plans to launch a massive, nationwide marketing campaign all through the summer and plans to target train stations, shopping malls, bus stations, live events, and more.

It has started off well by buying media space in train stations all over the country. So, you can expect to see Vodafone ads with the slogan “Travel the mobile internet” in billboards, ticket barriers, and rotating poster boards soon in a train station near you.

It has been announced that the campaign will start off at London’s Kings Cross station and will be run all over the country for more than 250 days.

More than the campaign, I think the price cut will do loads of good to Vodafone’s mobile internet division. Don’t you think so?

Categories: Mobile Web.

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CNET Networks decides to go mobile

CNET Networks in the U.K. has decided to make its move into the mobile world and it has started quite well by mobilizing two of its famous sites – cnet.co.uk and gamespot.co.uk. From now on, you can access both these sites any time you want, if you have an internet enabled mobile phone.

You will be able to access tons of content from both these sites, including but not limited to news and gadget reviews. CNET Network currently has around 10 million users and it hopes to reach out to them even more effectively through these mobile sites. CNET has joined hands with Nokia’s mobile portal and operator 3 to widen its prospects in the mobile world. The mobile sites of CNET will be managed by MoMac.

This announcement from CNET could not have come at a better time, as mobile industry right now is growing at a fast pace. CNET Network said that the time is ripe for experimenting with mobile content and since U.K. is considered one of the biggest markets for mobile internet, it just makes it even better. The main reason behind this move, according to CNET, is to provide value-added service to its current users and to attract more tech-savvy users who look for information on the move, right on their mobile phone.

CNET has also announced that it will come up with the mobile version of three of its sites – silicon.com, zdnet.com, and SmartPlanet.

I think this is a great move from CNET. Coming at a time when the habit of surfing the web on mobile phones is on the rise, this move might enable CNET to grab a large market share when the market grows further.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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Mobile social networking rapidly gaining popularity

Social networking is the in-thing now and it’s evident from the number of people who access MySpace and Facebook dutifully every day. In fact, people are so much into these sites that they want to be connected all the time. However, you can’t carry a laptop all the time and you can’t go to a browsing center ten times a day to update your status in your Facebook profile and to catch up with your friends. So, what do you do? Simple – you access these sites in your mobile phone.

The practice of accessing social networking sites on mobile phones, called mobile social networking, is becoming more and more popular with mobile users these days. The biggest reason is the iPhone. It literally changed the way people perceived mobile phones and now iPhone users top the chart in mobile internet usage.

According to statistics, more than 85% of iPhone users access the internet from their phones. This is an incredible number, to say the least. Smart phone users come second in this list. People, especially young ones, who have internet facility in their phone, access social networking sites regularly.

A report from Nielson says that 1.7% of all mobile users in the U.K. visited social networking sites on their cell phones regularly. It’s 1.6% in the U.S., 0.8% in Spain, 0.6% in Italy, and 0.2% in Germany. Experts predict that these numbers will more than double in about two years and mobile social networking will become popular big time.

MySpace, followed by Facebook, is the most accessed social networking site on mobile phones. In December 2007 alone, the site had close to 3 million visits from mobile users. In the U.S. and all over Europe, there are tens of thousands of regular mobile users who log into MySpace regularly. We’ve already seen how popular MySpace can be, but still these numbers are incredible.

I think these numbers will have a significant impact on mobile service prices in the coming days. Thanks to this overwhelming popularity of mobile social networking and other similar things, operators might be tempted to cut down the rates for data plans. One example for this would be Vodafone UK. In its latest monthly plans, it has added unlimited internet access as a standard feature. We might as well see other companies follow suit.

Categories: Apple iPhone, All things mobile phones, Mobile Social Networking.

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