Eric Schmidt at Davos: Yes, mobile will be big. Jupiter Research predicts a $64 billion mobile content market in 2012
Google’s Eric Schmidt calls current projections for the size of the industry too low in response to a Forrester report, which called for mobile advertising to reach $1 billion by 2012. Schmidt said it had failed to take into account a coming "tipping point" in mobile web usage: "It’s the recreation of the Internet, it’s the recreation of the PC story and it is before us-and it is very likely it will happen in the next year." Sources: CNN Money, mocoNews, Reuters
At the same time Juniper Research has issued predictions for mobile content, predicting the total global mobile content market will rise from $20 billion in 2007 to more than $64 billion by 2012. The top three sectors are music, games and video, but the remainder will be made up of User-Generated Content, whereby Mobiya targets Classifieds to take a serious large proportion. Source: mocoNews
Mobiya compared with Craigslist in the early days
Extract from Local Mobile Search : In Belgium, Mobiya has launched text-based mobile classifieds: “Everyone in Belgium with a mobile phone can place classifieds ads for free using sms or mms. Our distribution deals with Metro and Koopjeskrant provide significant reach of the ads.”
There are now multiple providers of mobile classifieds. Text is the right medium for the target (youth) audience. Even though it’s a small market now, there could be a kind of “insider” quality to classifieds (especially jobs) on mobile devices. This is how Craigslist began, as a small insiders network that was relatively unknown and exclusive.
Mobiya present at Plugg, the European Web 2.0 Conference
True definition of disruptive technology and IDC’s 2008 predictions
Many investors have asked us why we promote Mobiya System 1 as being a disruptive technology? The result of such discussions sometimes ends in a deep understanding around the potential of our platform. But it often results in a discussion about the definition of disruptive technology. So here, once and for all, and according to IDC, disruptive technology is:
"a product or service that turns the existing dominant technology on its head, because it no longer makes sense or ease! Technologies like mobile phones, Internet, DVDs etc. fall into this category!"
We at Mobiya believe that a simple and effective mobile user experience for classified advertising, combined with a mobile advertising business model for classified publishers and a easy-to-use rich-media functionality built into the mobile-camera device is at the foundation of a mobile classified service that will overturn the existing dominant technologies in the classified industry.
Furthermore, IDC predicts that investments should be driven to businesses that can fuel "hyper-growth, emerging markets such as the BRIC+9." Important to mention here is that these markets have very low internet penetration and a seriously high mobile penetration. Most countries will even skip the fixed-line Internet and go directly mobile. Web 2.0 will not drive great success in these markets. But innovative mobile services, such as mobile classifieds, will have immediate adoption.
Last, but not least, IDC clearly states that true disruption does not find place on a technology level alone, but also on a value chain and partner/supplier ecosystem. This means "sharing revenue, sharing development, sharing customer relationships, to expand the market." Exactly what Mobiya evangelizes on a day-by-day basis to a broad portfolio of operators, media owners and marketing firms.
Interested to find out more about our disruption strategy, feel free to download our manifesto: Download mobiya_manifesto_disrupting_classifieds.pdf
Reading: IDC Predictions for the IT Market in 2008 here.
Mobile Marketing Revenue to Hit $24 Billion in 2013
The global mobile marketing industry was worth $1.8 billion in 2007 and is expected to grow to $24 billion by 2013, according to ABI Research (release).
JupiterResearch about mobile advertising, mobile marketing and mobile web sites
JupiterResearch released three new mobile reports, synopsis below, unfortunately I don’t have copies of the full reports. Who can help me?
Mobile Advertising in Europe
- Landscape: SMS Still Only Potential for Reaching Mass-market Audience on Mobile Phones
- Outlook: Mobile Internet Advertising Will Start Quickly Growing After Transitional and Educational Phase
- Mandate: Stakeholders Must Implement Standards to Foster Market Uptake
- Keywords: media sellers, mobile operators, Blyk, Vodafone, Nokia, search, Google, MMA
- Report information: click here
Mobile Marketing in Europe
- Summary: Lack of Scale, Standards, and Systems Inhibit Near-Term Growth. Search engines, online publishers, mobile operators, and handset manufacturers are all offering advertisers a chance to reach consumers through mobile advertising. But significant doubts remain over mobile marketers’ ability to find the consumers—or the results—they’re looking for.
- Report information: click here
Mobile Web Sites
- Summary: Twenty-five percent of cell phone owners in the US browse the Internet from their cell phones, with 16 percent doing so frequently. As adoption and use grows, the importance of Web sites suitable for small screens will grow in importance for media companies.
- Report information: click here
Mobiya’s value chain in the UK market: about newspapers and Google
The UK market of B2B magazines is quickly consolidating. EMAP sold out to Apax and Guardian Media Group, strengthening their position against Reed Business Information (article).
Not only the magazine business remains under tremendous pressure, but the newspaper business is being challenged again, and guess by who… Google! After successfully testing the concept of selling ads online for print newspapers in the USA (see my November post), Google is extending the business case to the UK (article). This is very much a B2C play (plumbers, electricians selling to a consumer), but what is next? What about a consumer-to-consumer advertising and classifieds?
Mobiya is already extending the value chain from the mobile user onwards (via sms), into GoogleBase (or its own online listing), publishing into print (offline, e.g. Metro newspaper), back to mobile (or sms). Google’s statement almost says it all: "We believe that online and offline are part of the same melting pot, it is not an ‘either or’!" Just complete this quote with a mobile vision, and you have a fully integrated next generation advertising exchange. It might be Google; or someone else that can operate and control the complete value chain in a certain geographical market, hooking the consumer to its most personal asset: the mobile phone!
What has weather and classifieds in common?
Welcome back everyone. I never thought I would be writing about the weather at the beginning of this new year. The news goes that Weather Channel and Weather.com will be sold in 2008. The New York Times reports a valuation of $5 Billion. Read again, five billion dollar for weather!!! That’s a good start of 2008, while we believe a recession might hit the Western world.
The simplicity of the concept, selling weather services combined with the value of their media partner network and the growing importance of the digital side, is making Weather.com a "beachfront property." On the other hand, many people find weather (and classifieds) something boring as it relates to so-called-old-media: newspapers, radio and cable television.
One smart entrepreneur, Frank Batten, started the Weather Channel in 1982, immediately consolidating the market of weather services. One decade later (1995), weather.com was launched. Another decade later, narrowcasting became reality through digital distribution over the web and mobile media. The result today: a $5 Billion valuation.
My 2008 predictions for the classified advertising market:
- consolidation needed: too many players dealing with a free phenomenon, i.e. weather information is also free
- innovation will drive customer experience, customer loyalty and stickiness, i.e. mobile initiatives create synergies with existing media
- combine the two: consolidation through media partner network effects and innovation through major digital input and distribution (sms, web, wap) will put Mobiya at the forefront to lead the mobile classified network market.
