Mobiya semi-final Vodafone Mobile Clicks
Vodafone Mobile Clicks is a contest for startups on the mobile market. After a one hour presentation in front of a professional jury consisting of Richard Titus, CEO at Associated Northcliffe Digital and Al Russell, head of Vodafone Internet Services UK, Mobiya was selected to participate in the semi-final. The semi-final takes place on the 6th of September in London. More information about Vodafone Mobile Clicks here.
Telco’s buying into classifieds – BT buys Ufindus.com
The classified industry is in a constant flux. Classified content has become a very fluid currency, globally aggregated and syndicated by companies such as Oodle Inc. Classified revenues stream from one owner to the other. Traditional publishers saw free online classified companies starting up and moving payments away from consumers to brand advertisers, sponsoring their platforms. And yet another force is entering the classified space: telco’s!
Telco’s own the communication, be it mobile or fixed line. Telco’s own the content distribution, via their ISP portals or mobile portals such as Vodafone Live! or Orange World. Telco’s own the consumers and know their behavior and their preferences, and are constantly crunching demographic data preparing for advertising sales, both online and mobile. The telco’s are in the market to buy online and mobile advertising inventories.
Whether it is Vodafone, Belgacom, France Telecom or BT, we will see a lot of M&A activity from telco companies buying their way into the classified space. BT is setting the pace acquiring classifieds and directory company Ufindus for £20 million in cash (see article). Earlier this year, Kapaza was sold for €20M to Schibsted, but we are aware that at least one telco wanted to acquire Kapaza before it got into the hands of a large media group.
Conclusion: more pressure on traditional publishers trying to protect their classified revenues and advertising inventories…… but this time it is not hundreds of small online startups, but a global army of cash-rich telco giants entering the classified arena.
Mobiya press clipping: Mobile Content, a cut above
Article about the innovation in the premium sms market, m-payment and PayPal, Vodafone live!, eBay, and Mobiya. The article provides a good insight in the geographical distribution of premium sms revenues: figures mentioned show the rise of the USA totalling more than $273 million of premium sms revenue in their first quarter 2007. Compare this to 400 million in the UK (06/07) and 100 million in Belgium. Read more: click here or Download article_tmcnet.pdf
Another recent article (FierceMobileContent) reports that global mobile operators are losing out on as much as $4.9 billion in annual revenue from lost opportunities to create value-added SMS messages. Read more.
Operator mobile spam alienating phone users
"A new survey says 64 percent of respondents admitted to annoyance with marketing offers received from mobile operators, with 70 percent of subscribers finding the offers in question irrelevant. (more)"
Time for the operators to work with companies such as Mobiya that allow them to serve relevant mobile ads within a buying and selling context of their users. If not, all those investments in mobile ad serving technology on mobile operator network level will soon melt as snow in the sun.