30% Rise in African Connections

The GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade body for the mobile industry, has revealed that the number of mobile connections in Africa has risen by 70 million to 282 million in the past 12 months.  Mobile operators have ramped up investment in the region, extending GSM coverage to reach an additional 550,000 sq. km, occupied by 46 million people. The broadening coverage, coupled with the falling cost of mobile communications, is enabling tens of millions of Africans to become connected for the first time in their lives. Africa has only 35 million fixed lines. “Africa’s mobile industry is delivering on its promise to blanket the continent’s inhabitants with coverage, giving tens of thousands of rural communities their first opportunity to realise the substantial social and economic benefits of mobile communications,” said Tom Phillips, GSMA Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer, speaking at the ITU Telecom Africa event in Cairo. “However, over 300 million rural Africans do not yet have mobile coverage. They live in an area the size of China, India and the USA combined. Developing sustainable business models to serve these communities is a great challenge, which requires the mobile industry and African governments to work together.” At the ITU’s Connect Africa summit in Kigali in October, the GSMA announced that mobile operators plan to invest more than $50 billion (£26 billion) in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage. To realise the full social and economic benefits of this investment, African governments need to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available, particularly for mobile broadband services. Governments also need to tackle mobile-specific taxes, high licence fees, international gateway monopolies and other regulatory bottlenecks that constrain the competitiveness of African business. There’s a great deal of enthusiasm among network operators for extending their coverage in Africa. Marc Rennard, Executive Vice President, Orange - France Telecom Group, says: “Around 75% of the population is covered in most African countries where Orange operates and we intend to reach 90% coverage with the same level of quality by 2010 to serve untapped areas.” It’s a similar story at Zain, where CEO Dr. Saad Al Barrak says: “Zain will build its own fibre capacity backbones, where necessary, to speed up delivery and increase affordability of telecom services. Zain believes that such investments across sub-Saharan Africa will also have a positive economic and social impact.” Finally, Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom, says: “We have created a new subsidiary, Telecel Globe, which will reinvest in Africa's smaller countries. Telecel Globe will be fully staffed on. Orascom Telecom will only support its procurement power and commercial know-how. We call on African governments to reduce the taxation and regulatory burden on mobile users so we can maximise the positive impact of this investment.”

Mobile Advertising? Bring it On

Mobile agency Aerodeon has revealed the results of what it claims is the first ever sector-specific research project into consumer attitudes towards mobile phone advertising. The research, commissioned by Aerodeon, was conducted by brand research company, Millward Brown. The study was supported by sponsors across several key market sectors in digital advertising including Peugeot, Diageo, Sky, Nestle, More Th>n, Procter & Gamble and Orange. For all sectors covered, it found that over three in every five mobile Internet users are more inclined to purchase a brand in response to relevant opt-in advertising on their mobiles.
Conducted in January 2008, the research project solicited and measured the opinions of more than 1,000 18-64 year old PC Internet users in the UK, split equally by gender. The study aimed to highlight which product and service sectors would benefit most from investment in mobile advertising and marketing, and which formats, content and communication methods would be most acceptable to consumers and effective for advertisers.

Other findings include:
· 52% of all PC Internet users use the mobile Internet, rising to 77% of 18-24 year olds.

· One in three of all mobile Internet users browse at least once a week.

· Average surfing time per session is six minutes, with one quarter of all 18-34 year olds spending more than 10 minutes per session when browsing the mobile Internet.

· Mobile Internet surfing makes consumers feel they have reduced consumption of magazines and newspapers (net of 17% feel they are reading less). In contrast, it seems mobile surfing may increase PC-based Internet consumption (net of 23% feel they are surfing more).

· Two in three of all mobile Internet users use mobile Internet to search.

· Among heavy users of the mobile Internet, having access to the mobile Internet is more important than TV or newspapers.

· Nearly half of all regular mobile Internet users use the mobile web to research big ticket, high consideration items such as cars and holidays.

· The main barrier to adoption for non-users is cost and a lack of knowledge about how to access mobile Internet services.

Advertisers who sponsored the research are now examining the findings to identify the best category-specific mobile marketing opportunities among their individual target audiences.
“This study contributes to the growing body of compelling evidence that mobile offers advertisers unique advantages, and that investment in it is necessary to achieve a 360 degree digital communication strategy,” says Aerodeon Managing Director, Chris Bourke.
Steve Ricketts, Head of Third Party Services at Orange UK, believes the study provides powerful evidence for UK digital advertisers to take the initiative and include more mobile media in their marketing plans. He says:
“The results show that more and more British consumers are using mobile media and that their behaviour offers advertisers brand new ways to engage potential customers, drive sales and build brand equity. These positive findings reflect the ever increasing adoption and uptake of mobile media.”

Mobile Ad Spend Heads for a Billion

Annual mobile ad spend will pass $1 billion (£512 million) in 2008. That’s the conclusion of a report just released by Juniper Research. 
‘Mobile Advertising, Delivery Channels, Strategies & Forecasts 2008-2013’ contains forecasts of  recipients, response rates, and ad spend across eight key geographical regions until 2013. The 162-page study offers a detailed breakdown of the mobile advertising market, profiling leading companies within all sectors of the mobile advertising environment, including agencies, ad networks, application providers, operators and MVNOs.
The report focuses on seven key advertising delivery channels – SMS, MMS, in-content download, on-portal, mobile Internet, idle screen and Mobile TV - exploring the strategies so far adopted by principle players across the mobile advertising ecosystem and the potential opportunities available.
It looks at the current value of the mobile advertising market; the leading players; response rates; key drivers and hurdles; and mobile advertising regulation. It also considers how the mobile advertising value chain likely to develop; which mobile delivery channels will be the most successful for advertisers; and at the strategies that brands, ad agencies, operators and content providers should implement to facilitate the successful deployment of, and greatest response to, mobile advertising.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. And a free Whitepaper here.

Acision Bullish on Messaging Revenues

Messaging company Acision has forecast mobile messaging revenues of $165 billion (£84 billion) globally by 2011, 42% higher than Ovum’s previous prediction of $116 billion by this date.
Acision, which powers half of all the world’s text and multimedia messages, has explained its optimism with a five-step action plan that it says operators are already embarking upon in pursuit of messaging revenues. Acision believes the five steps have the capability to double messaging revenues for operators in the next four years. They are:
· Personalising the messaging experience with added functionality, relevant to specific consumer and enterprise segments
· Using partnerships and multi-play strategies to extend mobile messaging to the fixed environment, using converged messaging
· Subsidising mobile Internet revenues through messaging integration with interactive web applications such as Facebook and eBay          
· Mobilising enterprise applications
· Leveraging the mobile marketing opportunities offered by the reach of messaging platforms

Acision notes that since its inception 15 years ago, mobile messaging has delivered a 6,000% return on investment, but adds that the growth phase is not yet over, with markets such as India, North America and China seeing phenomenal traffic increases. Even within the more mature markets of Western Europe and South East Asia, says Acision, messaging still has huge growth potential.
“SMS has achieved more than anyone imagined it would 15 years ago, but speculation that messaging has reached its peak ignores much of today’s market dynamic,” says Acision CEO, Rory Buckley. “Peer-to-peer communication is showing no sign of stalling or declining, and already in South East Asia, operators’ efforts to differentiate their services by adding features such as out-of-office and blacklisting are proving popular with subscribers. However, it is with application-to-peer and peer-to-application messaging that the wider opportunities lie. We believe that capitalising on the opportunities afforded by web applications as Facebook (essentially an enormous web-based multimedia messaging environment) and effectively harnessing mobile marketing will enable operators to double mobile messaging revenues by 2011.”

It's Official: Social Networking Goes Mobile

Research just published by Nielsen Mobile reveals that one in four members of UK social networks use their phones to network. 44% of UK mobile phone subscribers belong to an online social network. Of this group, 25% use their mobile phone for social networking-related activities.
Around 812,000 Britons each month, or 1.7% of all UK mobile subscribers, visited a social networking website using their mobile during the first quarter of 2008. Facebook is the most popular site for mobile social networking, being visited by over 557,000 Britons from their mobiles, or 9% of all UK mobile Internet subscribers. In second place is MySpace (211,000), followed by Bebo (162,000), Windows Live Spaces (109,000), and Flixster (90,000).
“Social networking is already a global phenomenon, and mobile could be the next big thing in the space,” says Nielsen Mobile Client Services Manager, Kent Ferguson.
“Large numbers of people are interacting with their social networking profiles while they’re on the move. There could be increased consumer demand for mobile social networking driven by the flat-fee price plans offered by the leading operators that give subscribers unlimited mobile Internet access.”
The most popular mobile social-networking related activities are sending messages and mail (55%); reading messages and mail (47%); viewing photos (33%); uploading photos (29%); and adding friends (21%).
The four most popular social networks on the mobile are also the four most popular on the PC. Travel social network WAYN has the strongest performance on the mobile compared to the PC, ranking 7th on mobile Internet compared to 21st on PC Internet
“The increasingly competitive nature of social networking online is being replicated in the mobile space,” says Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen Online. “The leading players remain the same but networks such as WAYN and Faceparty have considerably improved on their PC ranking in the mobile world. In an effort to differentiate their offerings and pull ahead all the networks are looking to what the mobile medium can offer – particularly when it comes to attracting 15-24 year olds, a group highly representative amongst social networking addicts.”

Satellite Solution for Mobile TV?

While the European Mobile TV market is on the verge of significant growth, it still faces problems related to the efficient transmission and distribution of Mobile TV services. This being the case, recent and emerging studies have clearly shown the use of satellite technologies for Mobile TV services to be a sensible and cost-effective solution. Hence, the use of satellite services can be expected to significantly aid the sustainable growth in spread, quality and reliability of Mobile TV service offerings.
This is the conclusion of new analysis from Frost & Sullivan’s Space & Communications Group,   ‘European Mobile Satellite TV Markets’, which finds that that the market earned revenues of $1.92 million (£1 million) in 2007 and estimates this to reach $3.28 billion in 2014.
European Mobile Satellite TV Markets is part of the Space & Communications Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in Commercial Geostationary Transponder Markets for EMEA, NAM and Asia and Eastern European VSAT Markets. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
“As Mobile TV services continue to grow across Europe, customers and operators require a reliable and pervasive service coverage, which can transmit high-quality, dedicated programs,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Natalie Bentz. “The distribution and transmission by satellite, through the hybrid network or backhaul, will both greatly contribute to the success of Mobile TV, by providing what the industry and the customers ask for.”
The hybrid network solution for Mobile TV offers great potential in terms of distribution, says Frost, answering the operators’ and customers’ needs for reception in urban and rural areas, as well as indoor and outdoor settings. It adds that the utilization of the S-band, which will be allocated European Union-wide, will reduce spectrum difficulties that could be experienced when using other frequencies.
The report also says that using satellite backhaul for the distribution of Mobile TV has fundamental advantages, as backhaul is a known solution for data and video applications. Another advantage is that, in contrast to the direct/hybrid satellite solution in the S-band, this model is not affected by the standardization problem. Further, as this solution does not involve a direct link from the satellite to the end user, no specific devices or chipsets are needed.
The study notes, however, that both hybrid network and satellite backhaul solutions face some problems in the market, including competing alternatives through terrestrial networks.
“By the time of the scheduled availability of the satellite segment for the hybrid solution, terrestrial alternatives will already have established themselves in some markets,” says Bentz. “The solution of satellite backhaul faces problems related to the bandwidth hungriness of Mobile TV applications.”
Overall, the example of the Mobile TV market in Italy shows that there is still significant room for improvement, and that the hybrid network solution can bring just that, as customers require a high level and spread of service coverage and quality.
To request a brochure, which provides manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an outline of the European Mobile Satellite TV markets, send an e-mail to joanna.lewandowska@frost.com with your full name, company name, title, telephone number, company e-mail address, company website, city, state and country.

Accenture Survey Finds Consensus

Media and entertainment companies are in broad agreement on the way the digital market is evolving, where the opportunities lie, and what will drive revenues over the next five years, according to the findings of a survey released by Accenture. 
Accenture’s 2008 Global Media Content Survey has revealed that there appears to be strong consensus as to what will drive future growth. 70% of respondents to the survey, the company’s third of more than 100 senior executives in the media and entertainment industry indicated that they derive some revenue today (albeit less than 10%) from new, alternative forms of media, such as downloading or watching TV programs on demand, digital advertising or user-generated content, or can’t determine how much of their revenue comes from these new sources. Based on the participating companies, that small percentage of revenue actually represents tremendous growth , says Accenture, adding that substantial revenue streams are being derived today from these new forms of media.
Four of the main sources of revenue growth cited by respondents in this year’s survey are the same as those identified in last year’s survey, which indicates growing consensus about the potential of new platforms. These four sources of revenue growth  are multi-platform distribution, short-form video, social media/user-generated content, and advertising.

Multi-platform distribution
When asked to identify the largest drivers of revenue growth over the next five years, two-thirds of respondents cited new platforms or new ways of delivering content. This is significantly more than the number who cited new content types (24%) or new geographies (10%).  63% of respondents said they will pursue a multi-screen distribution strategy, which includes television, online and mobile delivery.

Short-form video
When asked which content type will generate the greatest growth, the greatest number of respondents (38%) cited short-form video, with online portal/publishing (23%) second, and video games (18%) third.

Social media and user-generated content
68% of respondents identified social media and user-generated content as a high-growth opportunity, and more than half (56%) said they are already involved in social media in some capacity.

Advertising
When asked to identify what they believe will be the number one business model in five years, (62%) of respondents selected advertising-supported business models, compared with 25% who cited subscription-based services and 11% who cited pay-per-play services.

“It is great news that media organizations are developing a consistent strategic view of the key growth areas, but execution is slow,” says Gavin Mann, Digital Media Lead for Accenture’s Media & Entertainment practice. “There clearly remains a huge effort to put in place the necessary capabilities, and it is apparent that the size of the task is still not fully understood. I am not claiming it is easy to turn around some of the world’s greatest media organisations, but I do believe it is essential if they are to remain great.”
While 50% of the executives interviewed said they know which capabilities they need to take advantage of in this new digital market, Accenture believes that many have a false sense of their current capabilities. 66% of the respondents have less than 40% of required capabilities, a number that is unchanged since last year’s survey, indicating that companies need to implement new digital technologies or be left behind.
For example, almost 80% of executives said that their organisations have a consistent view of intellectual property rights (i.e., have the same understanding of the rights associated with a specific intellectual property across their entire business). In Accenture’s experience, considerably fewer organisations actually have the flexibility necessary to capitalize on fast-developing opportunities. 
“We interviewed executives at the very top of their organizations, and at this level it might appear that they share a consistent and flexible view of intellectual property,” says Mann. “However, in many cases, we believe this will actually require inordinate manual efforts, or work-arounds, throughout the organization, each time a new distribution channel is launched. Such a cost structure is not sustainable over the long run.”

Other key findings include:
Uncertainty as to when the mobile market will take off - When asked when they believe the nascent mobile market will become a mass market, respondents were split, with slightly more than half (55%) saying within three years, while slightly less than 45% said they believe it will take longer.

There are several barriers to the mobile market - Consumer readiness continues to be singled out as a barrier to the mass uptake of the mobile market, cited by 51% of the executives surveyed. Respondents also cited other barriers, including companies’ ability, or lack thereof, to provide a consistent user experience (cited by 42% of respondents), as well as a lack of readiness among both content owners and mobile operators/networks (cited by 37%).

Digital advertising will drive a large portion of future revenues - Almost every media company is trying to adapt to the reality of digital advertising as a major source of revenue. 52% of respondents said they see digital advertising eclipsing traditional advertising within five years, and 62% said they believe that content will be supported by a variety of digital advertising methods, including branded content, search, sponsorships, performance and a mix of all of these within the next five years.

The Web 2.0 phenomenon is here to stay - 66% of respondents said there is no likelihood of the Web 2.0 bubble bursting during the next 24 months, and 71% said they do not see any risk in allowing their brands to be associated with social media.

There’s more information on the Global Media Content Survey here.

Mobile Banking Set For Growth

Driven by the excellent opportunity provided by mobile banking to enhance existing customer services, nearly a third of the world’s largest financial organizations are planning to launch mobile banking services in the next 12 to 24 months. That’s one of the key findings of a recent survey commissioned by Sybase 365, a subsidiary of mobile messaging company Sybase.         
The survey, ‘Mobile Banking: The Second Wave. Global Mobile Banking Survey 2008’, was conducted by independent research company Loudhouse in February, among 92 of the world’s top financial institutions, including 32 European banks, 30 banks in the US, and 30 banks from the Asia-Pacific region.
Results revealed that 66% of banks consider mobile banking an excellent opportunity to enhance existing customer service. While provision of such services is considerably advanced in European and Asia-Pacific regions compared to the US, growth is projected to be strongest in the US with 53% of US banks surveyed expecting to launch mobile banking services within the next 24 months.
“Key factors for financial institutions offering mobile banking are not solely commercial, such as reducing costs or generating revenue,” says Matthew Talbot, Vice President, mCommerce for Sybase 365. “Mobile banking provides unique opportunities for customer interaction and retention.”       
Sybase 365 says this broadening momentum should be encouraging for the consumer respondents to its 2007 mobile banking survey, 33% of whom expressed a desire to manage  their finances on the move. A key element in increasing adoption, which is mirrored in the 2007 consumer study, is the level of awareness that customers have of mobile banking services. It appears that banks are responding to the lack of awareness felt by consumers, with 65% of the banks who currently offer mobile services stating that marketing budgets and activities to raise awareness are part of their strategic plan for 2008.
The most common mobile banking services currently available to customers include balance on demand (offered by 87% of banks with mobile banking services); transaction alerts (77%); money transfers (74%): and balance alerts (71%). Of those banks that offer such services, the top reasons for doing so are to improve the customer experience (87%); to extend Internet banking (81%), and to achieve competitive advantage (71%).

Digital Dividend Study Published

The European economy would receive a financial boost of at least €95 billion (£75 billion) over the next 20 years, if one quarter of the UHF band were instead allocated for mobile broadband services, according to independent study published by Spectrum Value Partners.
The report, ‘Getting the most out of the digital dividend’, was commissioned by Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone, and claims to be the first comprehensive economic analysis of the costs and benefits of allocating different quantities of UHF spectrum for mobile broadband and broadcast use throughout Europe.
Although the size of the benefits differ between individual Member States, the potential €95 billion windfall to the European economy represents additional value specifically associated with the use of the UHF spectrum. It is in addition to the €2.5 trillion generated by the European mobile industry using other spectrum in the same period between 2008 and 2027.
The study also shows that, with the remainder of the band, broadcasters are expected to generate more than €750 billion for the European economy during the same period, reflecting the large individual and social benefits from terrestrial broadcasting. It assumes that all existing free-to-air analogue broadcast TV channels will continue to be provided in either high definition or standard definition formats, and finds that the majority of the value which could be created by broadcasters is already provided by existing analogue channels, rather than by the launch of new digital-only channels.
The study also finds that much of the value associated with the use of UHF spectrum for mobile services is attributed to providing wider and lower-cost broadband coverage. Together with a 12MHz ‘guard band’ to prevent interference between mobile broadband and TV services, the mobile industry would need between 40MHz and 140MHz under a wide range of plausible demand scenarios. This could help generate a range from at least €63 billion to as much as €165 billion of additional value for the European economy.
It also concludes that allocating at least 92MHz (including the ‘guard band’) of UHF spectrum, to mobile operators - a quarter of the total UHF band currently used for the provision of broadcast services - would be most likely to maximise additional value for the European economy as a whole.
Finally, the report says, delaying the release of UHF spectrum by three years would cost Europe €20 billion.
“The efficient use of the UHF spectrum is vital if Europe is to remain a global leader in both broadcasting and mobile communications in the coming decades,” says Richard Feasey, Public Policy Director at Vodafone. “We join the European Parliament and the European Commission in urging Member States to act now. The study, for the first time, bridges the gap between the two sectors and provides policymakers with the tools to work out how best to use the digital dividend in each Member State. It shows all of us the enormous economic consequences of those decisions. We intend this study to be a major input into the Regulatory Impact Assessment which the European Commission has said it intends to undertake this summer, but which we believe should also be undertaken by each and every Member State over the next 12 months. If we delay further, Europe will pay a heavy price. “
Catherine Trautmann, MEP and rapporteur in the current review of EU telecommunications legislation, has also suggested that every Member State should be required to establish a National Digital Dividend Plan. The US completed an auction of UHF TV radio spectrum in March, this year. To date, only three European Member States have developed firm proposals for the digital dividend in Europe. 

Study Looks at Strategies for Low-ARPU Markets

Portio Research has released its report, ‘The Next Billion: Strategies for driving growth and making profits in low-ARPU mobile markets’.
Portio notes that since the first mobile phones reached the hands of consumers at the end of the 1980s, it took approximately 15 years for the first 25% of the human race to subscribe to mobile services, and that the next 25% look set to sign up by mid-2008, when the 50% global penetration mark is expected to be reached.
The report looks at where the growth is set to come from after that, at who will be “the next billion”, where they live, and how much money will they have to spend on mobile services. The report also offers detailed demographic analysis of the top growth markets, and the strategies network operators are using to penetrate these markets.
The report concludes that the next billion are actually 1.5 billion in number; that they will take the world from 50% penetration to 75% penetration in just four years; that 65% of them live in Asia; and that almost 70% of them live in rural communities
Portio says it has studied the top 10 growth markets of the next four years, and has identified that nine out of 10 of those markets have one key defining factor in common: they are all low income per-capita markets compared to the wealthy nations that have made up the bulk of the first 3 billion mobile subscribers.
The report looks at these country markets in detail and identifies the extent of the urban and rural communities in these countries. It looks in detail at the United States and explains how the wealthiest nation in the world is forecast to be the third biggest growth market of the next four years, and what that is worth in financial terms. The report forecasts subscriber growth, ARPU to 2011 and service revenues from 2006 to 2011, as the US marches towards a $200 billion market.
The report also analyzes what strategies are being used to penetrate low-ARPU rural markets, and as rural subscribers in India and Bangladesh head towards monthly ARPU of $3 or $4, asks whether network operators can maintain margins. The report concludes that five of the top 10 growth markets are in South Asia. It further forecasts that these five big Asian growth markets will add over 815 million new mobile subscribers over the next four years, equivalent to the entire population of the European Union, the US, Australia and New Zealand combined.
The report costs £1,495 for a 1 – 5 user PDF team licence; £1,995 for a small or medium- size PDF company licence; or £2,995 for a large corporate PDF unlimited licence. For more information and details of how to order, click here.

mobileSTATS Puts Stats on the Mobile

UK company mobileSTATS has announced the launched of its mobile analytics solution of the same name, which is designed to monitor traffic to mobile websites. The solution makes all statistics available to view on the client’s mobile phone in real time.
Businesses signing up to the mobileSTATS service can track the number of visitors to their website, where they come from, which pages they are looking at, peak traffic times, cost-per-click activity, and much more.
“In the quest to optimise online marketing, companies need intelligent web usage information to measure what’s working well, and what isn’t,” says mobileSTATS Managing Director, Jon Kelly. “mobileSTATS can deliver that information to your mobile or Blackberry, in real time, around the clock. Imagine having the equivalent of Google analytics on your phone, with instant real-time reporting available.”
Users can choose to access graphs, performance comparisons and information about which ‘natural referrers’, such as Google and MSN, are generating traffic or sales, on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And if a trend or hotspot changes, or a site goes down, mobileSTATS will immediately send an SMS alert to a designated mobile phone, to enable a rapid response.
“CEOs and marketing directors can now access key website performance data on the golf course or during a business lunch via their mobile phone to ensure they are always completely up to date,” says Kelly.
The mobileSTATS service supports all types of web formats, including Flash, and delivers conventional website performance statistics to users’ mobile phones. The company also has a team of consultants available to provide more in-depth reports for board meetings, to work with in-house teams to design and build mobile websites, and to develop strategies to drive quality traffic.

Searching Questions Answered

Local Search will become a key application for over 30% of mobile phone users by 2013. That’s the conclusion of a new report just published by Juniper Research. The report, ‘Mobile Search & Discovery: Opportunities & Markets, 2008-2013’, assesses the current and future potential of mobile search applications and services, forecasting mobile search and associated mobile advertising and data revenues across eight key geographical regions until 2013.
The 190-page study analyses major players in the sector, providing a qualitative detailed outlook from key executives in the industry, including strategies from market leading companies such as Google and Yahoo! In addition, the report explains the changes that are underway in the mobile search market, with the emergence of off-portal and on-device search, exploring the key drivers for the growth of mobile advertising.
The report defines five categories of mobile search; general web search; on-device search; local search; on-portal content search; and off-portal content search, with forecasts for each category, including users, number of searches, cost-per-clickthrough and total number of searches that are ad-supported. It also concentrates on how these developments, along with ad-supported revenues within mobile search, are likely to impact upon the growth of the mobile advertising sector.
The report looks at the current and future size of the mobile search market, and at the key drivers for mobile search adoption. It examines the strategies of Google and Yahoo! within the mobile environment, and considers which regions are likely to see the highest uptake of mobile search. It also looks at how much data revenue mobile operators will generate through search services, and at the impact the deployment of 3G services will have upon mobile search.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more information here.  And a free Whitepaper here.

Jaguar Celebrates Mobile Campaign Success

Jaguar Cars has announced results from its mobile advertising campaign in the US. The campaign drives traffic to its mobile Internet site, created by Global Beach and built by Incentivated, which promotes the new luxury Jaguar XF.
The mobile advertising campaign appears on mobile Internet sites including MSN.mobi, cars.mobi, Yahoo Mobile and admob.com. Since its launch in November to coincide with the unveiling of the XF at the Los Angeles motor show, the campaign has delivered over 15 million ad impressions across the mobile Internet, delivering over 85,000 unique visitors to the Jaguar XF WAP site, representing a clickthrough rate of 0.6%. Mobile banner ads are the only medium used to promote the WAPsite.
Global Beach, Jaguar’s world-wide digital agency, designed the WAP site for the US market, partnering with mobile specialist Incentivated for the build. The site (www.jaguarxf.mobi) provides a gallery of high quality images to promote the car’s design, innovation and performance, including high- and low-resolution versions of XF videos.
The site allows visitors to input their ZIP code in order to locate their nearest dealer and book a test drive, or to order a brochure. Visitors can also submit their email address in order to request a branded email newsletter, and can download wallpapers to their handsets.
The site uses detection software to ensure the content served to visitors’ mobile browsers is dynamically optimized for each handset. As a result, the service automatically resizes the WAP site for viewing on iPhones, Smartphones, BlackBerrys, PDAs and over 2,000 other mobile devices in use across the US. The campaign was  large enough to warrant a dedicated iPhone mobile Internet site, despite the views of some who claim regular websites look good enough for the small screen of an iPhone.
Since the campaign launch, there have been over 12,000 videos and more than 16,000 wallpapers downloaded. For users who ventured beyond the home-page, the average dwell time was 2 minutes, 12 seconds. 1.2% of users requested an email brochure by entering their email address into the WAPsite. 2.6% located their nearest dealer to arrange a test drive.
“Jaguar is proud to translate our positive digital experiences with mobile marketing, and to deliver an engaging and rich brand experience for our technologically advanced customer base,” says Rome Murphy, Interactive Marketing Manager for Jaguar North America. “We are particularly impressed with the user experience across a broad range of handset types.”
Robert Thurner, Commercial Director at Incentivated adds: “We applaud Jaguar for running a campaign which harnesses the mobile medium’s unique strengths in combining exceptional rich content with a response mechanic and location-based services. Yielding a healthy ROI, the campaign demonstrates the exceptional value mobile marketing can deliver.”

AdMob Launches Analytics

Mobile advertising network AdMob has announced the launch of  AdMob Mobile Analytics, which the company says delivers a comprehensive solution for understanding user behaviour and makes it easy to measure the usage of mobile websites and ad campaigns.
AdMob Mobile Analytics, which runs independent of the company's other services, can be set up in less than 10 minutes and does not require ad spend or publishing activity with the company's flagship product, the AdMob mobile advertising network. AdMob Analytics will offer businesses a free, simple solution to maximize commerce, advertising and content on the mobile Internet and to improve the overall user experience.
“AdMob has invested heavily in user, device and carrier detection to fuel our statistical modelling and optimization efforts,” says AdMob CEO and Founder, Omar Hamoui. “We've been building some very sophisticated technologies for our own network and are now in a position to empower sites to take advantage of our engineering investments to optimize their mobile web efforts. We hope AdMob Mobile Analytics will provide a further catalyst for the growth of the mobile web.”
AdMob says that AdMob Mobile Analytics will help mobile site owners understand their audience, optimize their content and improve usability. The AdMob Analytics suite allows mobile site owners to track site performance metrics such as unique visitors, duration of visit and page performance, as well as user details, including geography, operator and device specifics. This information will help mobile site owners tune their sites to the specific consumers visiting their mobile web presence. Mobile Websites can use the insights they gain from AdMob Mobile Analytics to offer consumers more of what they want and make it easier for them to find and interact with content.
“The mobile web has grown significantly in the past year, thanks to device, network and billing catalysts,” says Linda Barrabee, Program Manager, Wireless at Yankee Group. “Analytics tools are critical for web publishers, and the availability of these solutions will assist in driving a better user experience on the mobile web.”
AdMob Mobile Analytics will also provide visibility into a site's sources of traffic, including search engines, direct traffic and advertising. Combined with the ability to track conversion of the specific events and actions that the campaign seeks to drive, this will enable measurement of campaign performance. With AdMob Mobile Analytics, says AdMob, advertisers can track the success of campaigns run on any mobile ad network.
AdMob says it has leveraged its existing user identification technology and global infrastructure in building its analytics offering, which is a free service that works for any size of business and is not limited by visitors or page views.   
AdMob is accepting limited private beta sign ups for AdMob Analytics, starting today. To find out more, click here.

Orange Digital Media Index Shows Mobile Web Growth

Orange has unveiled its third Digital Media Index, which examines trends in customer consumption of digital media. The latest findings reveal a sharp increase in mobile Internet access, alongside traditional fixed-line broadband.
The Orange Digital Media Index reveals usage patterns across the full range of Orange’s entertainment and communications services, including home broadband, text and picture messaging, and the mobile Internet.
The latest report finds the mobile Internet becoming a part of day-to-day life, with a 35% increase in page impressions. Mobile TV is also taking off, with an 87% increase in the total hours viewed. Video downloads are also gaining momentum, with the number of downloads having doubled in the last year. Single music track downloads are also reaching new heights, with a record-breaking 289,000 tracks downloaded in December alone. But vanilla-flavoured text messaging remains as popular as ever, with over 1.3 billion messages sent each month, an increase of 21% on the last Orange Digital Media Index.
“The mobile phone has truly taken its place as a multimedia content device,” says Orange Director of Portals for Orange, Matthew Kirk. “The popularity of Mobile TV, music and gaming has surged, as customers use the mobile Internet alongside home broadband to stay connected wherever they are. It really is the third screen in our lives for entertainment, communication and information, alongside the TV and the PC."

Just the Ticket

New research from Juniper suggests that retailers will be sending up to 3 billion mobile coupons to consumers’ phone by 2011.
‘Mobile Ticketing & Coupons, Strategies & Markets 2007-2011’ offers forecasts of user acceptance, transaction value and transactional traffic across eight key geographical regions until 2011. The 142-page study provides leading one-on-one interviews with key industry players, and combines a detailed analysis of dominant technologies, including barcodes, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near-field Communications),  exploring the success of a number of important applications and services within this sector from around the globe.
In addition to uncovering the potential drivers and constraints to future market growth, the report explores strategic and market developments, based on the benefits to all members of the market chain, with recommendations for maximising revenues in this rapidly-developing sector.
Juniper says the report is an invaluable tool for forecasting mobile ticketing and coupon users, in addition to average and total numbers of annual transactions and transaction value data. It also provides valuable market projections for three mobile ticketing sub-sectors: transport; sporting events; and entertainment & events .
The report looks at the current and future market size for mobile ticketing & coupons; the key strategies for mobile network operators, ticketing/coupon issuers and new entrants; the main market drivers for mobile ticketing and coupons; the key technologies that are being adopted for mobile ticketing and coupons; and at who will be the winners and losers in the mobile ticketing and coupon market.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF licence or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user network PDF licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide PDF licence.
You can get more details here. And a free Whitepaper here.

BuzzCity Reports Mobile Ad Surge

BuzzCity, which provides global wireless communities and consumer services, has released the myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index, which it says demonstrates the popularity of its myGamma mobile social network. BuzzCity also reports a growth in demand for its service in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which the company says will surprise both the global mobile community and digital advertising industries. BuzzCity believes the growth is a result of changes in mobile operator business models,  offering affordable and understandable mobile data packages.
The myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index shows advertising page views in the first quarter of 2008. The top 10 countries are as follows:
1. Indonesia: 654 million (up 13,328% on Q1 2007)
2.  India: 577 million (up 1,522%)
3.  South Africa: 426 million (up 418%)
4.  USA: 132 million (up 917%)
5.  Kenya: 79 million (up 424%)
6.  Romania: 57 million (up 446%)
7.  Bangladesh: 53 million (up 305%)
8.  China: 37 million (up 6,053%)
9.  Brunei: 35 million (up 221%)
10.  Pakistan: 35 million (up 814%)

BuzzCity’s myGamma mobile social network service operates on an ad-funded model as the  primary source of revenue. Ads are served on myGamma and on more than 2,000 publisher sites globally. BuzzCity tracks the growth of the network and, by extension, the growth of the mobile Internet in more than 70 countries around the world.
The company recently announced plans for a US office. Traffic in the US has grown more than 900%. BuzzCity expects page views in the US to grow to more than 100 million per month in the next quarter.
In Q1 2007, the myGamma banner network served just over 260 million banners in its top 10 countries. In Q1 2008, the Top 10 countries served more than 2 billion ads, a growth of 800%. The Top 10 also saw some new entrants, with Indonesia, China and Pakistan replacing Thailand, Nigeria & Malaysia.
“In Q1 of 2008, we served more than 26 million banner advertisements to Egyptian users,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “This is a growth of 5,400% against the first quarter of 2007, when we served only 490,000 impressions. During this period, Saudi Arabian traffic grew by nearly 900% to 22 million banners. In both cases, increased mobile penetration and healthy competition among carriers invariably sees more consumer activity on the mobile Internet. We are only going to see more of this, everywhere.”

Screen Digest Report Analyses Mobile Advertising Prospects

Media analyst Screen Digest has released its report, ‘Mobile media advertising opportunities: The market for advertising on TV, video and games’. The research examines the emerging market for rich media advertising delivered to consumers via their mobile phone in the form of TV, video, games, user-generated content (UGC) and music. The report includes the findings of an exclusive survey of GroupM’s advertising agencies in 25 countries to assess the current and future potential for this form of advertising across the globe.
Screen Digest believes the market for rich media advertising on mobile will reach $2.79 billion (£1.4 billion) by 2012, with global Mobile TV advertising accounting for the lion’s share at $2.44bn. In terms of the formats that will deliver this revenue, the company says, there are those that will deliver, and those that will disappoint.

Delivering revenues: Mobile TV and Video on Demand
The report says that by 2012, advertising will account for over 20% of Mobile TV revenues, but without its own metrics, it will struggle to be considered as a standalone advertising channel. Free-to-air broadcast markets such as Japan and South Korea will offer bigger advertising opportunities than markets where Mobile TV will be offered as paid subscriptions to the consumer, such as North America and most of Europe. Mobile Video-on-Demand advertising will be small in comparison, reaching $336 million in 2012 by supporting extracts from popular programmes and sponsoring recurring content, such as news and weather forecasts.

Marketing tools: games, UGC and music
In terms of delivering advertising revenues, Screen Digest believes that games, UGC and music will disappoint. However, these formats will provide a valuable source of innovative marketing opportunities for brands aspiring to connect and interact with their customers. For example, Screen Digest predicts that by 2012, over 60 million ad-funded mobile games will be downloaded per year worldwide.

Getting advertising direct to the consumer – anytime, anywhere, any format
More ubiquitous than the PC, mobile offers the opportunity to send personalised messages to people in all markets. Advertising sent via the mobile phone reaches the recipient directly, wherever they are, at any time and location, offering effective targeting, as well as interactivity and consumer engagement.
Yet despite these benefits, mobile advertising is very much in its infancy. Julien Theys, one of the authors of the report notes the factors that are holding back the mass market take up of mobile advertising. He says:
“Data pricing structures, handset and mobile web usability, content quality and the lack of audience metrics to measure effectiveness are preventing mobile advertising from reaching its market potential. Although we expect these hurdles to be overcome in the coming years, mobile media advertising will have to compete with search, display, messaging advertising as well as many innovative uses of mobile in marketing campaigns.”

View from GroupM: an emerging format with potential
The advertising executives surveyed in GroupM’s agencies in 25 countries were positive about the capabilities offered by mobile advertising, in particular targeting by location, interactivity and high response rates. To date only 15% had used mobile advertising, either as a standalone or integrated campaign, underlining Screen Digest’s view that this is an emerging technology. Of those agencies that had trialled mobile advertising, 75% had used mobile content as a promotional item at least once, while 67% had placed an ad in rich media at least once. The reasons given for not incorporating it into ad campaigns included poor user experience and usability, handset limitations and the lack of clear measurement metrics.
David MacQueen, Head of Mobile and Co-author of the report concludes:
“Mobile advertising, and mobile rich media advertising in particular, is a growing industry, with a rapidly evolving landscape. Nokia, Microsoft and Google have been very active in developing mobile advertising operations, either internally or through external acquisitions. The potential is huge, and some of the world’s largest companies are vying for control of what they see as the next major advertising medium.”

Research Finds Spam is on the Mobile Menu

Research from messaging security company Cloudmark shows that 66% of UK mobile phone users have been victims of spam, with the number of 18 to 24 year olds targeted as high as 75% - the highest percentage of any age category. Cloudmark commissioned YouGov to carry out a survey into the current state of mobile spam in the UK earlier this year. The research was carried out online between 11 and 13 March among 2,150 adults. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults, aged 18 and over.
The survey, which explored experiences and attitudes towards mobile spam, found that the service providers are going to be the ultimate victims, as 28% of consumers blame their operator for unwanted communications and 44% would consider changing network because of mobile spam. This figure rises to 65% as soon as the frequency of unwanted messages hits one or more a month. 
In addition, the types of mobile spam consumers are receiving go beyond simple nuisance messages, to attacks designed to steal personal information or trick the consumer into spending money. Of the respondents that have been victims of spam, nearly one in 10  have been targeted with phishing attacks encouraging them to disclose personal data, 38% received a text containing a link to another site, while 45% received a text message that tried to trick them into calling a premium rate number.
“It’s a fallacy to think that mobile messaging spam isn’t yet an issue in the UK,” says Cloudmark Head of Technology for EMEA, Neil Cook. “Not only is it already a problem, but when you see that three quarters of young people are subjected to mobile spam, the scale of the challenge comes into sharp focus. Mobile spam may not be in the same league as traditional email spam, but as this survey shows, subscribers’ tolerance of unwanted and unsolicited mobile messages is virtually nil. That means mobile operators simply can’t afford to adopt a wait-and-see strategy.”
The Cloudmark survey also found that new mobile marketing initiatives are being damaged by mobile spam, with consumer confidence being lost and brand reputation impacted. 66% agreed that mobile spam would make them less likely to participate in opt-in mobile marketing campaigns and m-commerce initiatives in the future.
You can see more Cloudmark research into the state of mobile messaging security around the globe here.

Pie Eyed

Portio Research has released its report, ‘Slicing Up The Mobile Services Revenue Pie’, which looks at the total market value of the worldwide mobile and wireless market. The report examines which services the money comes from; which regions the money comes from; and where the money goes to. It also includes regional subscriber forecasts, handset shipment and revenue forecasts; and detailed revenue forecasts to 2011 for SMS, MMS, mobile video, music, games and other services.
Portio notes that industry forecasts predict that 2008 will be the year that the worldwide mobile industry becomes a $1 trillion (£500 billion) industry. It adds that 2007 became the year to see worldwide mobile handset shipments exceed 1 billion for the first time, and as 2008 begins so the world also crosses the highly significant 50% mobile penetration point. 
As mobile voice prices have declined and margins have come under intense pressure, network operators have been forced to look at non-voice services to win new customers and boost margins. A wide variety of value-added non-voice services have emerged, from messaging and mobile music, to email, Mobile TV and video downloads, location-based services, games, gambling and mobile payment services. In 2007, worldwide, non-voice services accounted for 18.9% of total mobile services revenues, and this figure looks set to keep growing, reaching more than 25.5% by the end of 2012. To put that in context, worldwide consumer spending on non-voice mobile services in 2012 will exceed $251 billion (£125 billion). 
The report costs £1,495 for a 1-5 user PDF licence; £2,495 for a small or medium-size PDF company licence; or £3,995 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. And a brochure here.

Accenture Study Reveals Changing TV Viewing Habits

Consumers are growing increasingly disenchanted with their overall TV experience but are nonetheless remaining remarkably loyal to their favourite programmes, according to results from Accenture's inaugural Global Broadcast Consumer Survey, which quizzed approximately, 1,000 consumers in six countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US – and around 500 each in Mexico and Brazil, Accenture conducted the survey to analyze how people in multiple global markets consume and respond to broadcast content, and how they are adapting to the new content delivery methods.
The survey found that although television remains the predominant mass communications device worldwide, with 97% of respondents watching TV in a typical week, consumption patterns vary based on a number of factors including geography, age and socio-economic status. While some 70% of consumers watch four or more television programs a week, 71% of them watch programmes on four or more television channels.
Accenture says this channel-hopping demonstrates that consumers are more loyal to the content they want to watch rather than the branded distribution channel to which they may be accustomed. This affords an opportunity for content creators, studios and networks to begin delivering content to consumers on multiple channels and through multiple devices, creating new ways to interact with consumers, and entirely new revenue streams.
David Wolf, a Senior Executive with Accenture’s Media & Entertainment practice, believes the research suggests that TV is rapidly shifting from its origins as a clearly-identifiable stand-alone medium.
“People are experiencing new consumption opportunities and moving away from traditional, linear programming,” says Wolf. “And age has become the leading indicator of these new behavioral preferences, with consumers under 35 years old clearly the best indicator of these impending changes and future broadcast consumption patterns. Today’s youth are more dissatisfied with the traditional television experience and increasingly excited by the availability of new choices.”
The study found that in the US, 46% of 18-24 year-olds view content via mobile devices; but there is considerably less interest among those 55 and older (19%). According to Wolf, this dramatic behavioural shift represents the beginnings of a wave of change that will ultimately transform the content production and distribution marketplace worldwide. He says:
“The under 35-year-old group is more likely to watch content on alternative devices, more likely to be familiar with On Demand TV, prefers watching content on demand and is more willing to pay to download content. User-generated content ranks highly on mobile, reflecting the expanding photo and video capabilities of mobile handsets and the potential for easy sharing either face-to-face or via messaging.”
The survey findings underscore the fact that consumers throughout the world today have more power and control than ever before in terms of what to watch, when to watch it, and on what device. In today’s digital environment, says Accenture, the definition of what constitutes “TV” and its intended purpose is getting increasingly blurred, as ambitious new entrants, channels and new interactive capabilities flood in from all sides.
The study found that 0ne in three adults in the eight countries surveyed access programmes via an alternative device in a typical week, with Italy (41%), France (36%) and Spain (35%) the highest, while Brazil is the lowest at 17%.
There’s more information on Accenture’s Global Broadcast Consumer Survey here.

AdMob Releases March Stats

Mobile ad network AdMob has unveiled statistics for March from its mobile ad network. The data reveals that total the total number of ad impressions on the AdMob network increased by 10% to 2.55 billion from 2.31 billion. Ad requests also continued to soar, rising by 11.8%.
The statistics also show that Nokia’s share of network impressions decreased by 2.5%, and that Nokia lost 2.2% of its US ad impressions share to Motorola and RIM. The RAZR V3 took the top device spot in the US, and the Nokia N70 moved into first place in India. The top devices remained the same in the UK (Sony Ericsson K800i), South Africa (Motorola v360) and Indonesia (Nokia 6600).
In March, iPhone traffic also started growing at the same pace as the rest of the AdMob network. You can download the full report here.

Report Examines Mobile Search Prospects

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Mobile Search & Discovery: Opportunities & Markets, 2008-2013’ which looks at the prospects for mobile search applications and services; forecasting mobile search and associated mobile advertising and data revenues across eight key geographical regions up until 2013.
The 190-page study analyses more than 15 major players, providing a qualitative detailed outlook from key executives in the industry, including strategies from market leading companies such as Google and Yahoo! In addition, the report examines the changes that are underway in the mobile search market, with the emergence of off-portal and on-device search, exploring the key drivers for the growth of mobile advertising.
The report defines five categories of mobile search, including general web search; on-device search; local search; on-portal content search; and off-portal content search. Market development forecasts for each category include number of users, number of searches, cost-per-click-through and total number of searches that are ad-supported. It further concentrates on how these developments, along with ad-supported revenues within mobile search, are likely to impact upon the growth of the mobile advertising sector.
The report examines the current and future size of the mobile search market; the key drivers for mobile search adoption; the strategies of Google and Yahoo! within the mobile environment; the major players in mobile search; and the regions in which mobile search usage is likely to be highest.
The report costs £1,490 for a hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. And a free Whitepaper here.

Mobile Entertainment Under the Spotlight

Juniper Research  has released its report, ‘Mobile Entertainment Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2007-2012’, which looks at the current and future potential of technologies and services within the mobile entertainment marketplace, forecasting subscriber, product sector and regional revenues across eight key geographical areas over the next four years.
This second edition of the report covers mobile music, games, User-generated Content, gambling, infotainment and Mobile TV. Forecasts for each market sector include mobile market growth, and consolidated market projections for total end user generated revenues, as well as more in-depth product sector forecasts, such as total wager and gross win from mobile gambling.
The report looks at the current and future size of the mobile entertainment market; what strategies operators, vendors and publishers should employ to maximise their respective returns in the mobile entertainment market; what are the major hurdles to greater adoption, and usage, of mobile entertainment services; and at how the mobile entertainment value chain is developing.
The report costs £1,490 for a hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. A brochure here.  And a free Whitepaper here.

Itsmy.com Hits a Million

Mobile social network itsmy.com has clocked up its 1 millionth registered user. The ad-funded mobile community gives every user a free personalisable mobile homepage with a unique mobile web address (myname.itsmy.com) to give out to their friends, which Gofresh, the company behind itsmy.com, says is the main reason for the fast viral growth. Users can sign up via their mobile phone’s browser.
Gofresh says it has identified two distinct types of user groups within the community. Active content creators are registered users with a full profile who upload content. Downloader-surfers do not need to register. They use the community to watch Mobile TV, download videos and pictures and surf within the community. The total number of users, embracing both types, has reached 2.5 million by 1 April 2008.
80% of users are from US and Europe. The leading states in the US are California and Texas; the leading cities, Detroit and Cincinnati. The fastest growing countries in Europe are the UK, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Users browse more than 300 million mobile Internet pages each month. To date, more than 5 million videos, pictures and wallpapers have been created and uploaded. Users have more than 4.5 million WAP sites, including personalised homepages, “about me” pages and group galleries.
“Our users get 24/7 entertainment with an advanced networking aspect,” says  Gofresh COO, Sabine Irrgang. “Everybody can make a personal choice – heavy communication or creation of the coolest personal homepage or uploading favourite videos.”

PwC Offers M&A Insights

Africa and the Middle East are poised for increased M&A activity and consolidation in the telecoms industry following a global decline in deal value and volumes in 2007. That’s the conclusion of a study, ‘Telecoms M&A Insights’ from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which reveals that the total global disclosed deal value fell from €332 billion (£262 billion) in 2006, to €185 billion in 2007, while deal volumes declined from 1,260 in 2006 to 1,190 in 2007.
One of the principal reasons for the decline in deal value in 2007 was the lack of mega-deals compared with 2006. The only deal in 2007 that exceeded €20 billion was the €23 billion merger of America Telecom with America Movil in Latin America, whereas in 2006, there was the Bell South acquisition by AT&T for €58 billion plus a number deals greater than €10 billion. The much-discussed €25 billion acquisition of Bell Canada has yet to complete, though recent regulatory approvals are encouraging.
“Last year was a curate’s egg in the telecoms deal market, with funding conditions in the first three quarters promoting a high level of activity, particularly by private equity, followed by the black cloud of the credit crunch in the fourth quarter,” says Philip Shepherd, Partner and TMT Strategy Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “Private equity transactions led the way, reaching a high of nearly 30% of the total value, but this activity has all but ceased now.”
There was surprisingly limited activity from the major operators other than Vodafone, though interestingly, the proportion of deals transacted in the emerging markets of Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa regions actually grew as a proportion of global deal activity since 2005, accounting for 22% of all deals in 2007, compared with 11% in 2004.
“As consolidation in the developed markets of the US and Western Europe appears to have largely played out for now, it will be Africa and the Middle East that will see the greatest growth and potential for acquisition and consolidation, with interest in wireless being the principal driver,” says Shepherd.
PwC notes that some of the largest operators in the Middle East have been rapidly consolidating their presence across the region. Kuwait’s Zain (formerly MTC Group) has expanded its operations in the region, securing the licence to launch a third wireless operator in Saudi Arabia for €4 billion. It has operations in six countries in the Middle East and 14 in Africa, joining Etisilat and the South African companies of Vodacom, MTN and France Telecom as the key players in Africa. Qtel and Saudi Telecom have joined the fray with Qtel’s acquisition of Watanyia, which, at €2.8 billion, was the largest in the region, and Saudi Telecom’s acquisition of a 35% stake in Oger Telecom.
Elsewhere in developing markets, India has finally been cracked by a western operator, with Vodafone’s acquisition of Hutchison Essar. It is the potential of the enormous Indian and Chinese operators to make moves outside the region, however, which is most intriguing. While there has been nothing of note yet, says PwC, there is a changing sentiment amongst businesses in both countries encouraging overseas acquisitions. The firms adds that the credit crunch will have a significant impact on the market in the future, with private equity the hardest hit, as its ability to leverage large deals will be severely constrained.

Mobile Scores as a Response Tool in DMA Study

Mobile messaging has emerged as one of the strongest performers in prompting consumers to seek further information, in consumer research from the DMA (Direct Marketing Association), sponsored by information services company, Experian. Telephone calls, interactive TV (iTV) and mobile messaging were the three forms of marketing communication most likely to result in respondents seeking further information. iTV, while relatively under-used, was identified as the most powerful medium in driving a direct purchase,  followed by field marketing and email marketing. TV and radio ads, customer magazines and inserts lead the field in generating retail traffic.
The DMA Participation Media Report, conducted by the Future Foundation, explores the consumer’s actual experience of direct marketing, using an diary approach. The research was conducted in two parts: 2,000 people were questioned via face-to-face interviews about their attitudes towards communications and their actions as a result of receiving direct communications. All those interviewed were also given a direct communications diary to compile, in which they noted down the occasions on which they received direct communications from companies over the course of one day and how they responded.
Unsurprisingly, the report shows that growth in Internet access has increased across all demographics as confidence in the medium grows and access costs decrease,  including an increase in the number of people accessing Internet services at work. Indeed, the research found that the majority of purchases made in response to email marketing were at work.
The research indicates that most consumers (75%) feel overwhelmed by the number of marketing communications they receive, although they remain happy to pick and choose between them (70%). Although the percentage that feel overwhelmed has increased by 10% since 2004, the willingness to pick and choose between messages has also increased by 10%.
“As the number of communications grow, consumers have become better at filtering information,” says DMA Head of Research, Victoria Bytel. “People are able to de-sensitise themselves from content, but in doing so they also disconnect from the brand. To avoid becoming wallpaper, marketers need to work even harder to make communications stand out.”

Bango Releases Mobile Ad Stats

Bango has released clickthrough and conversion rate data from mobile advertising campaigns that show that banner and text ads on mobile websites typically have a click through rate of 2-8% with a conversion rate of 2-5% which can be as high as 12% on some networks. The data was collected by Bango customers who use Bango Analytics to measure their mobile marketing campaigns.
The stats show that when the offer is closely aligned to the needs of a particular consumer profile, clickthrough and conversion rates increase, often doubling. Using Bango Analytics, mobile site owners can determine the characteristics of those most receptive to their marketing message. This information is then used to focus marketing campaigns on the countries, networks and handsets which return the highest conversion rates.
AdEye, a mobile marketing company that uses Bluetooth technology to target ads at consumers, ran billboard ads for Sony Ericsson and selected Bango Analytics so it could analyze the responses. 
“We want to understand more about who was clicking through - what network were they on, what device did used, how they responded to the offer, what they did next?" says EdEye CEO, Tommy Jensen. “Bango Analytics gives us this level of detail, which is incredibly valuable to our clients.”
Data from Bango Analytics showed that 47% of responses came from the number three mobile operator in Denmark, Telia, while just 29% came from the largest operator, TDC. An impressive 32.9% of the users that made a Bluetooth request went to the WAP campaign site.
By looking at the Bango Analytics data, another advertiser, Tapatap, a mobile social game site, calculated mobile ad conversion rates and acquisition costs per member. The impressive conversion rates have confirmed the wisdom of Tapatap's strategy of focusing its marketing efforts on mobile.
“We are using Bango Analytics for a wide range of tasks,” says Tapatap CEO, Andy Riedel. “One is to audit the traffic we are getting from the various traffic networks we use. We  aggregate traffic from a wide variety of sources and wanted an independent means to ensure that the traffic we receive is what we are paying for. Bango Analytics has proven to be very valuable as an independent auditing tool.”
Bango notes that the key to a successful mobile advertising campaign is buying traffic from the right mobile network as the subscriber profile of each varies - some have a younger demographic, others more professional users or more willing to try out innovative, new services.
“Our clients are interested in carrier-based targeting,” says Derek Merrill, Chief Innovation Officer at MoVoxx, a mobile as agency focused exclusively on SMS marketing. “One of our advertisers placed ads across our mobile social networking SMS inventory. The short text-based ads included a URL to download a branded mobile game. We used Bango Analytics to track clickthroughs and compare results across the major carriers.”
bango points out that it’s easy to insert tags or tracking links into the mobile site to identify traffic from ad campaigns and search keywords. Data collected can quickly be analyzed to determine the return on investment from each campaign. Bango Analytics operates as a hosted service, allowing mobile website owners anywhere in the world to connect their sites to the Analytics service in minutes and start getting results free of charge. You can find out more and try it out here.

AdMob Passes 20 Billion Milestone

Mobile advertising network AdMob has revealed that it has served its 20 billionth advertisement, making it the first mobile advertising company to hit this milestone worldwide. The company’s monthly impressions have grown from 500 million ads per month a year ago to 2.5 billion advertisements per month today. This, the company says, demonstrates both the electric pace of overall mobile web browsing worldwide and the growth of the AdMob network of sites.
AdMob’s 20 billionth ad impression was from financial services conglomerate HDFC. The ad was served in India at 1:56am UTC on Tuesday, 25 March, while a visitor was browsing Cricinfo’s mobile web site on a Nokia N70.
“This is an exciting milestone, but we’re most encouraged by the progress we’ve made on the underlying platform and technology that powers our marketplace,” says AdMob Founder and CEO, Omar Hamoui. “Our relevance and optimization efforts led by our team of statisticians and researchers have already yielded double digit gains in our ability to monetize our publisher’s sites. I’m very confident that over the next two quarters we will be making significant product enhancements and releasing entirely new solutions that will further unlock the true potential in mobile.”
AdMob has grown its ecosystem on the back of technology built to optimize relevance and targeting for the mobile environment. Hundreds of advertisers create and run ads through the marketplace on www.admob.com every day, and AdMob serves ads to mobile web users in over 160 countries daily. AdMob recently launched a Japanese language version of its online marketplace to serve the Japanese market, which is among the most developed country markets for mobile web browsing.
Brian Bos, SVP, Convergence Director of Mindshare - Team Detroit, which buuys mobile ad inventory for a number of clients says:
“Ford believes mobile marketing is an important and engaging way to reach consumers. AdMob has provided us with an efficient and highly targeted way to engage potential customers in the mobile environment. We congratulate them on their momentum and leadership in this medium.”
AdMob publishes network statistics on countries and devices on a monthly basis. You can see the stats here.

Mobile Banking Under the Spotlight

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Mobile Financial Services, Banking and Payment Markets 2007-2011’, which assesses the current and future potential of mobile financial services applications and services, forecasting users, traffic and transaction values for the total mobile financial services market, and within mobile banking and payment sectors across eight key geographical regions until 2011.
The 168-page study includes one-on-one interviews with mobile operators, banks, credit card and infrastructure companies, as well as handset & MFS (mobile financial services) vendors. It also explores the success of NFC (near field technology) trials and provides company profiles for many key players.
The report also offers an examination of the opportunities and threats facing all members of the MFS chain, offering analysis and forecasts for companies hoping to maximise revenues within key sectors of the mobile financial services industry, including mobile banking, financial information services (messaging), funds transfer, bill presentation and payment, and account management and customer service.
The report considers the current and future market size for MFS; the strategy for financial institutions, mobile network operators, credit card networks and new entrants; the main market drivers for MFS; the technologies being adopted for MFS; whether customers are ready for the “ATM in their pocket”; and how the developed world is embracing MFS.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence. You can get more details here.   And a free Whitepaper here.

Juniper Analyses Mobile Search Prospects

Juniper Research has released its report, ‘Search & Discovery: Opportunities & Markets, 2008-2013’.  The report assesses the current and future potential of mobile search applications and services, forecasting mobile search and associated mobile advertising and data revenues across eight key geographical regions until 2013.
The 190-page study analyses over 15 major players, providing a qualitative detailed outlook from key executives in the industry, including strategies from market-leading companies such as Google and Yahoo! In addition, the report explains the changes that are underway in the mobile search market, with the emergence of off-portal and on-device search, exploring the key drivers for the growth of mobile advertising.
The report defines five categories of mobile search, including general web search; on-device search; local search; on-portal content search; and off-portal content search. Market development forecasts are split into these five search strategies, and include users, number of searches, cost-per-clickthrough and total number of searches that are ad supported. It further concentrates on how these developments, along with ad-supported revenues within mobile search, are likely to impact upon the growth of the mobile advertising sector.
The report examined the current and future size of the mobile search market; the key drivers for mobile search adoption; the strategies being adopted by Google and Yahoo! within the mobile environment; who the major players in mobile search are; in which regions mobile search usage is likely to be highest; and how much data revenue mobile operators can expect to generate through search services.
The report costs £1,490 for a single-user PDF or hardback copy; £1,990 for a multi-user licence; or £2,990 for an enterprise-wide licence.
You can get more details here. A brochure here. And a free Whitepaper here.

BING Sings

Mobile entertainment company Buongirono has released statistics on the performance of its mobile social networking solution, BING. BING launced initially in South Africa and Austria in June 2007, and has since rolled out in an additional nine territories, including the UK, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam.  According to Buongiorno, over 20 million messages are currently exchanged each week on BING, with 1.2 million user logins each week.
The BING application blends SMS and Instant Messenger (IM) functionality in an open Java software service that allows for real mobile-to-mobile chat for friends which is entirely free of charge. A key benefit of the service, says Buonogiorno, is that it can operate irrespective of mobile operator and handset model anywhere in the world. Also, unlike traditional SMS, BING allows users to communicate with as many friends as they like at the same time.
The application has a core target group of 16-18 year olds, but Buongiorno says it is resonating with a broader demographic of young urban people, for whom social networking on the move is very important.
Buongiorno says it will be investing €10 million (£8 million) in designing an upgrade of BING that will allow the company to further capture the mobile social networking trend. Buongiorno notes that according to eMarketer, social networking is expected to attract advertising amounting to over $2.1 billion (£1.1 billion) by 2008, representing an increase of 75% since 2007, in a market where consolidation is already taking place.
“It is important for Buongiorno to capture value generating developments in the industry, and the enormous popularity of social networking obviously represents a huge opportunity for us,” says Fernando González Mesones, Head of Global Marketing, Product & Supply at Buongiorno. “It is our goal to become one of the most recognized global brands in mobile social networking.”

US Consumers Ready for Mobile Banking, Study Finds

Market research firm Harris Interactive has released details of a study that shows that US mobile phone users are increasingly comfortable using their phone for banking and purchasing while on the move.
The company interviewed 1,072 US adults aged 18 and over in December 2007 for its ‘2008 Winter Technology Report’. The study finds that 16% of mobile phone subscribers already use mobile banking services, with 60% of these using the services at least once a week. Many others presently not banking and buying on-the-go expressed interest in mobile banking, with 35% open to checking bank account balances and transferring funds via their mobile devices. A third of those surveyed also said they would like to receive text message alerts from their financial institutions.
The survey also finds that on-the-go mobile purchases are on the rise. About 25% of mobile phone users with mobile access to the Internet now use their devices to buy goods and services online via a credit card. One in five respondents said they would like to one day use their phone as a mobile wallet, with charges billed directly to their mobile accounts. In addition, 10% of respondents said they would consider wire transfers and stock trading via their mobile phones.
“Today’s mobile devices are the springboard for a whole raft of services, with huge pent-up demand for mobile commerce capabilities,” says Harris interactive Vice President, Joseph Porus. “If security concerns can be quelled, the sky’s the limit with consumer acceptance of mobile banking and purchase transactions. It’s a very intriguing prospect for the near future, considering how people have already embraced a variety of mobile technologies, beyond simple phone communications.”
Among those surveyed, the biggest barrier to consumer acceptance of mobile banking and commerce is security concerns over personal data. 66% of respondents expressed apprehension about using their mobile phone to transmit sensitive financial information. 63% said they feared the medium could expose them to potential fraud and financial scams, while 61% worry about losing a mobile phone containing personal financial information. Other consumer concerns around mobile commerce include questions about usability (43%), reliability (37%), and the speed of the wireless network (23%).
“While the survey indicates people have concerns associated with using mobile devices for financial transactions, it’s similar to the evolution of the Internet as a viable tool for banking and buying,” says Porus. “We expect mobile technology to only improve and become even more secure in the coming years. This should ease people’s fears and make mobile commerce appealing in the future.”
You can see more stats from the report here.

Study Looks at Irish Mobile Usage

Irish mobile marketing agency Return2Sender has released the results of research into the mobile behaviour of Irish consumers. The research was conducted by Lansdowne Research, who quizzed 1,000 Irish consumers on their attitudes toward mobile marketing, advertising and next-generation services such as the mobile Internet.
The study asked mobile phone users whether they would be more or less likely to respond to an ad by using a text number or visiting a website. Over a third of respondents said they would respond using text. Marginally more under-35s would respond using text when compared with their older counterparts, and there is little difference across social classes.
In order to establish current usage of mobile Internet services, the study asked respondents if they had ever accessed the Internet using their handsets. One in five confirmed that they had. Return2Sender says it expects to see considerable growth in this area through the second half of 2008 and going into 2009. Of those who do access the Internet via their mobile phone, proportionately more are female than male, and the majority are under the age of 35.
The reasons for using the mobile web vary by age. While younger mobile Internet users are interested primarily in downloading ringtones, browsing and music, the over- 35s are more motivated by information services such as news and directions. 
As would be expected, male-oriented services include sports and news-related content. It is, however, significant, the company says, that larger numbers of females are using key services such as downloading ringtones and music.
77% of those surveyed said that they have never accessed the Internet using their mobile phone. Lack of interest and perceived need, along with high data costs, were seen as the key barriers to usage. Slow service, connection problems and lack of time, were not identified as barriers to mobile Internet use.
Return2Sender says the research identifies a clear gap in the market for content owners and producers to engage the mobile audience by creating new services, and also a clear responsibility on network operators to introduce and publicise flat-rate data plans, and to offer more compelling content to engage mobile consumers.
Just under 60% of respondents claim to have sent or received a picture/multimedia message. Of these, 10% say that they send a multimedia message every day, with a further 10% sending one every week.