I’d like to present a different take than proposed by Aner below. When I think of the effectiveness of this new marketing channel I look at the wider perspective of the platform and user habits. To pinpoint the discussion further I’d like to address the action that leads to the ad being served. Google’s definition of a mobile ad is as follows:

“Mobile ads are shorter text-based AdWords ads that appear on mobile websites or when users search Google from a mobile device. When users clicks on your mobile ad, you can send them to your mobile webpage or offer them the option to connect to your business phone.”

The issue that I would like to focus on is the fact that content discovery and search habits are COMPLETELY different when it comes to mobile browsing. As such, I believe ‘copying’ a successful ad model on the ‘pc web’ does not guarantee success in the mobile world.

Mobile web browsing is much more focused. You hardly ever start in one place and ‘wander’ to the next or discover new services and information based on advertising and hyperlinks. Its usually a much more focused action. You are ‘on the go’ you look up ’something’ - news, sports –> these are served via direct links in the Operator’s portal or your own bookmarks - done. There is no (or hardly any) plain search. If there is, its in the context of a use case such as maps, music or video search and that usually happens within a specific service (HooQs ).

In his MEM2007 insights post Aner mentioned (point #9) users tried Google mobile search and didn’t like it. I did too, and didn’t like it. Not because of Google but because content is scarce and the chance of random discovery which is part of the Internet’s main ‘wonders’ doesn’t [yet] exist in the mobile web.

I’m willing to agree Google’s drive is positive. If anyone can start some kind of drive that will motivate mobile content to be created thus leading to an eco-system that is able to sustain ads based on that content…it’s Google. Google’s mobile ads are basically an experiment that will hopefully lead to more mobile content and probably also lead to a change in the ad model.

One of the greatest killer apps for mobile search will be the integration of location based with search. Not on a country level, on the neighborhood level! If I want to buy flowers for my wife - Go to Google, search “Flowers” –> results = near by flower shops, with link to number and a map. That’s effective and thats the kind of “fused” service I am looking when it comes to using my mobile for search.

For now, the level of service is basic. The action is welcomed but execution not focused enough on leveraging mobile use cases.

      

Google’s mobile version of AdSense is finally in beta. After months of second hand rumors, these news now seem substantiated as Google has put together a mobile ad FAQ page. Ads are available in 13 countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, China, Ireland, India, Russia and Australia. Advertisers can choose between 12 and 18 characters per ad.

The pricing and clearance processes are similar to the ones already established on the web with one major exception. In the mobile version, the user can actually place a call to the published business. If this doesn’t drive mobile click through price up then I find it hard to know what will.

Will this work? Absolutely! I believe this is exactly what the industry needs to kick-back. Banners are limited and the collective user patience for them is exhausted. Useful, contextual information on the mobile phone can actually add value to the browsing session.

      

A good friend of mine recently complained to me that there are no good mobile finance solutions. He has a regular consumer mobile (SonyE w800i) “What about Yahoo Finance?“, I asked …”Na..doesn’t work” he quickly dismissed. When I learned about Google Finance for Mobile I quickly ran to compare. Google’s solution includes easy access to financial info on the go through text messaging or mobile browsing - but so does Yahoo so whats the big deal?

The deal is: elegance & simplicity - the atoms of execution. On the surface Yahoo’s solution should even be better. The Finance page is more informative, there is even a cool feature that enables you to send yourself an SMS with the web address instead of typing the address yourself. The problem started when I tried (God forbid) using it - I just couldn’t login. I got the link, tried to add a quote only to get a ‘turn off’ message - “Invalid Yahoo ID or password”. Now remember I got here by sending the SMS, the least you can do for me is let me login…NO. No link to login, “Help” didn’t help and the other roads I tried didn’t lead to Rome (login). So there I was, yet again disappointed of a Yahoo service that beat Google to the mark but missed on execution.

Google’s WAP browsing experience and portfolio management was a breeze to operate, a joy to use and has now become my official on the go stock tool - BAMM…Bookmarked!

Yet again Usability wins the day. I could care less about the tech behind these two platforms - when the execution is seamless and the basics are there, your a step a way from success…or as in Google’s case…swimming in it!

      

Stuart O’brien reports that Groove Mobile is launching a direct D2C full track download service. The service will be based on the technology Groove has developed for SonyBMG and Vodafone UK will be the first to offer the service as a channel. Groove is busy recruiting additional labels and operator channels. From what I understand, Groove licenses the music and the operator agrees to put the service “on deck”, meaning that data charges will not be added to the full track purchase price.

This business model is significant in a number of ways.

From a user perspective the new service eliminates the hated hidden costs. As O’Brien reports, “Groove’s agreement with Vodafone means it can wrap the cost of the data up into the price of a £1.29 or £1.50 track, charged using premium SMS.” This is a key parameter; Evidence shows users won’t pay twice - for data and for content - it’s either one or the other.

The second significant factor is the fact Groove is moving up in value chain. From an enabler (Sprint, 3) to a service provider. In a perfect world, this is where companies like Groove should be - between the content provider and the operator, but as a service. This structure is key to user satisfaction, content richness and competitive pricing. Let’s hope other operators follow in the footsteps of Vodafone UK.

      

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

Aner’s insights from MEM2007 zoom in on the transitional phase the mobile industry is going through. The company I co-founded (TriPlay) recently launched an internet-mobile service (SyncSpace) with an Israeli operator and if there was one highlight to this whole process is that “westbound” mobile operators are sailing in uncharted territory. Here are a few key points I learned that highlight some challenges I came across (far from the complete list which could fill a book):

1. Target audience - there is no doubt that the market leaders on the demand side for web-mobile service are young people (ages 15-25 and we know that even 15 might not be young enough). They breath mobile services, consume content and eat up data services like no other target group. How is this a problem? Because WE - the mobile/internet start-up’ists, the VC partner, executives at large corporates, ALL of us who define, create, build and fund related companies and services are at least twice that age.

How can we be sure we are creating the right service?

Solution - Talk , talk, talk to them, get feedback, have them involved in your development process. Don’t force your vision on them and expect them to comply. If you don’t expect to find out at launch that you are simply not cool enough, that you have given them far too little credit and that you don’t really cater to their need.

About a year ago I read through a fascinating 200 pages research paper focusing on mobile youth. The ONE sentence I still remember a year later is that “Messaging services that fail to reinforce peer groups offer little beyond their initial novelty value to youth“. This is true for any service - there is tendency to seek technological breakthrough with less thought invested in the real life scenarios it supposed to serve. Bottom line - focus on value first, technology second.

2. Mobile operator corporate culture - analyze the typical headcount at any mobile operator and you will find that most are experienced MOBILE professionals who know a lot about mobile but less about web services, content and entertainment. Yesterday’s mission for the mobile was to ‘connect people’ by voice. Today’s Mission is about connection, voice or data and content. Tomorrow - the mobile will be an ‘IP gateway’ through which the users ‘mobile life’ will be enabled. Where mobility is the focus and not the mobile device.

The mobile device will be the users’ setop-box, entertainment and multimedia device as well as the voice/data communicator. These offerings are not only technologically diversified across platforms but also combine different schools of thought on how to launch new services. The words BETA, rapid development, on the fly, viral and other funky web 2.0ish words contradict mobile operator’s mentality. I don’t believe they need to change their skin but some of the attributes that go hand in hand with creating successful businesses in the web and entertainment industries will have to meld into their corporate culture.

Since this is not an overnight revolution, I expect this to be solved over time. Some interesting times ahead for management, HR units in the mobile operator world as well as their supporting industries. Service providers too will have to go through this metamorphoses. One that will reflect the new role the mobile device has in the future world.

3. beta? Don’t be surprised if you get this reaction. Telco’s are not used to running beta, not to mention the famous Google’s “perpetual beta” mode. Beta mean you are tolerant to bugs, open to user feedback and ready to change requirements if the market says you should. Telco’s heritage is simply different. The good old ‘telco grade’ means that when you pick up the phone (old fixed line phone) you hear a dialing tone - no ifs and buts. Web 2.0 user services launch way before they are fully tested for mass market usage. By definition they are not built for scalability and reliability from day one. They launch in beta, make mistakes, learn, fix and invest in scalability when the market demand forces them do so. When the ‘worlds collide’ this will have to change.

Mobile operators launching web-mobile services will not be able to apply this ‘telco grade’ mentality from day one. If they do they will always lag with services and not be perceived by their users as providing them with ‘edgy’ services. If users find their telco is introducing web- mobile services months and even years after independent players do they will find that the leading target users are already engaged with a different ‘off-deck’ solution. Scalability will not be an issue then since no users will use them to begin with.

Nonetheless they don’t have to be complete 37signals’ type cavaliers and mange their projects on IM chats, no meetings and launch. Somewhere in the middle would do.

4. The handset factor - most of the PC’s in the world are about the same, same OS (windows), same browser (Firefox/Explorer), same keyboard, strong memory, big screen, sit on one network - the PC internet is WWW etc etc. In the mobile world the ball game is totally different. A highly diverse OS environment - J2ME, Symbian, Brew, Windows; Countless different browsers, different screen size, open garden / closed garden (E.G Verizon) etc etc. Therefore creating a smooth, unified, simple, reliable and more important PREDICTABLE mobile experience is a mammoth task. Solution - focus on your initial target audience - what OS are they on? what devices serve them, what are the future devices - don’t try to capture all at once. Define an acceptable experience, aim for the core and spread.

On a more macro level ‘the industry’ better get its act together and start to pin point preferred OS’s, browsers etc. and not let this jungle take over. There is no doubt that when the environment will be more standard, a plethora of new services will evolve.
5. AJAX (Web 2.0) meets WML / XHTML (Mobile 0.5 ) - not a problem! The mobile and PC web experiences are not meant to be the same. Stop raping the mobile phone with overly rich ‘web like experience’. On the mobile it is highly important to focus on simple and fast flows so not having the rich PC environment is not as big disadvantage as you think. A good and simple WAP page, can provide the required experience. In any case just like I mentioned above - focus on value (and now I am adding..) usability first and technology second. All in all exciting times are ahead. The paradigm shift I am seeing is that the mobile device will be my ‘handy’ extension to my mobile life…which can be used and enjoyed on the mobile device but has extensions on the PC and TV as well. As such, when designing such services one needs to think of the three dimensional ‘fused’ world we live in, serving real life / valuable scenarios and NOT focus on connecting two or three technological dots.

      

In March DeGardener broke out the scoop about PayPal intentions to launch Mobile Checkout. Now it’s finally formal. Matt Weathers, Moile Group Product Manager in PayPal tells us that PayPal will be formally announcing the availability of PayPal Mobile Checkout at the PayPal Developers Conference in Boston today. This is good news for any provider as premium SMS is complicated, sloppy and somewhat overly expensive. Our own web to mobile service, HooQs, will now be able to offer content providers a new monetizing route. 

According to Weathers, the PayPal Mobile Checkout flow is a two page WAP buyer checkout which is managed by APIs. A buyer can pay by logging in with user name and password or phone and PIN.  There’s no need for credit card info or bank info as the APIs are simplified versions of the existing Express Checkout APIs.  PayPal expects to drive selling of a range of products via mobile phone (tickets, services, hardgoods, donations, transportation cards, etc).  

“PayPal put a lot emphasis on reaching buyers and on solving the discovery challenges and have partnered with a set of design partners for that purpose. The APIs were designed to maximize merchant and developer control over the buyer experience.  Checkout can be plugged into the process regardless of bearer - SMS marketing, search, WAP sites or client.   The merchant sends the product details via the API and then gets a WAP link that can be delivered or displayed in SMS or WAP.  It can also be triggered by J2ME client (on most modern phones), which can present an almost unique option for game and mobile application developers outside the operator deck.”  

PayPal is very well positioned to take leadership of WAP based billing in the United States. This ecosystem takes a lot of presence and committed partners, and a player like PayPal holds a great position for obvious reasons. In Europe, however, PayPal will face quite some competition from quick runner Bango.  [correction: Bango works with PayPal as a channel and therefore they do not compete but collaborate - Thank Matt and Ray for correcting] In any case, these recent development is very good news for all service providers who wish to monetize the mobile channel.

A demonstration of the mobile search is now on PayPal’s WAP home page (https://mobile.paypal.com/) under the link “Buy something”.  Weather stresses that PayPal is definitely not getting into the search business,  “The search demonstration is purely designed to show the potential for mobile commerce”.

      

I spent the week in Monaco at MEM2007. From the personal perspective it was a very exciting show, after all, first time HOOQs was on display. From that perspective we had an excellent show - great feedback and lots of users and leads. We have work cut out for us, but the good news is that the market is HOT! The need for personalized, open, operator independent web to mobile services is all over the place and is welcomed by users, operators, content providers, analysts and bloggers.

MEM2007 is not really a classic exhibition, it’s more of a conference. Participation is nearly exclusive to industry insiders and the tracks, therefore, are very professional. To a start-up-ist, these represent rare opportunities to take a 30,000 feet view and collect some insights that extend beyond the daily challenges. My own personal climax was not a single industry lecture or panel, even though all were very interesting at their own merit. To me, the most insightful session was a focus group with 10 different teenagers. These young adults were gathered from different countries - Australia, England, France, Italy, Finland, Germany - and were all surveyed about their digital lives. Here is some of what they told us:

1. The key elements teenagers look for in their mobile phones is appearance. Then come ability to play music, quality of camera and feature richness. 

2. Nokia is the most popular handset brand. Out of the 10 participants, 5 had Nokias, 2 had Samsungs, 2 had LGs (Chocolate) and 1 had a Sony Ericsson. 7 out of 10 devices were 3G.

3. They don’t do mobile clients - only 1 participant ever downloaded a mobile application. A game. Used it a couple of times and ditched it.

4. Teenagers are smart shoppers. They don’t mind paying for Internet content, but hate buying stuff they can easily find for free. In other words, they will not buy songs for 3 Euros a pop. Contrary to popular belief, they buy a lot of CDs in addition to downloading free music. They know how to manage their music collection and how to get their favorite music on their mobile device.

5. On they other hand, all participants testified they would gladly buy new content if only they could find it easily. All participants agreed that the mobile operator portals are close to impossible to navigate through.

6. On top, the differences between operators and handsets make it impossible for users to share experiences. Not tracks or clips - pure information about where and how to find them!

7. They things they on their handsets are better Internet browsing and memory. They really don’t get why MP3 and Video enabled phones come with such little memory.

8. They don’t mind advertising if it makes content free. They are already used to online ant TV advertising, why object to mobile ads?

9. They all tried Google on their mobile and didn’t like it. The mobile experience does not provide anything close to the internet experience.

10. They don’t do MMS. All of them tried and all of them claim that “it doesn’t work”.

11. If they had to give up their TV, Mobile Phone or PC, 9 out of 10 would give up their TV (the only other answer was PC). None would let go of their mobile phone.

These young adults were not screaming in a vacuum. It was great to hear executives from operators presenting plans to further breakdown their walled gardens and push flat data rates. It seems like it’s only a question of price points now. This is music to the ears of user centric service providers. To me, however, getting the bartenders in front of our booth excited and HooQed was most rewarding than anything!

      

My day job has become my all-around-the-day job lately as you can tell from the lack of recent writing.  Well, the reason why is now out in beta!

HooQs is a user centric web to mobile service. You can search, create, save and share internet media with mobile phones.  Your personal media is aggregated in channels which we call HooQs. HooQs can be saved, managed, sent to mobile phones around the world and of course, enjoyed. Registration is optional, however as a user you get your own internet rich media portal tailored to your own personal taste.

Since the whole idea is to get personal, my own favorite HooQs at the moment are Paris Hilton in Jail, Vintage TV Commercials, Best of Monty Python and Computer Game Nostalgia.  My full HooQ board can be found here.

So get HooQed but be gentle, Beta means Beta! We do promise to do our best to continuously improve and personally I would more than welcome your feedback and comments! 

HooQs is best used on a 3G phone.

      

Before you read this post be so kind as and take our quick test survey on your mobile. Simply surf to:

de.mobiode.mobi

Before pointing out that “this can easily be done on the web, why the hell is he sending me to my mobile?”, bare with me, this has educational value. My only disclaimer is that proper use of the system would also mean receiving the link directly on your phone, but I guess the cost of sending messages was a factor.

What you experienced took me 5 minutes to set up.

Mobiode lets you create a survey and publish it in seconds. This is not new. The neat thing about Mobiode’s service is the following:

The surveys are adapted to WAP and therefore allow you to distribute the survey/poll to any mobile. This way you can reach your customers outside of their usually PC settings.
And on top of this:

1. Its extremely easy to set up the survey
2. There is a basic account that lets you publish one survey at a time for free. Not a money back guarantee. Not a 30 day trial. Free.

If this weren’t simple the whole package would not be worth it. While Mobiode doesn’t look as smooth or schique as 37signals, the execution is just as simple. And it makes all the difference.

I opened an account in seconds. Created a survey. Sent it (to myself first) and then to friends and collected the stats. No hassle, no complications, no ‘read the fine print’ - just did it.

The ability to connect to your users on their mobile and gain feedback in such a simple manner is of high value.

I recommend taking a look.

      

CTIA fueled some significant mobile news this week as Google, Nokia and Yahoo are about to crash helmets over the next mobile killer app.

Google has made a couple of significant steps this week. The more significant announcement came on Monday, as a strategic deal with LG was announced. Mike Evant reports that Google and LG will preinstall Google Maps, Gmail and Blogger on a wide variety of LG phones, making it a no brainer for carriers to ship and for users to try.

In addition, YouTube will be launching a mobile site as soon as the exclusivity period with Verizon Wireless expires. Unlike the Verizon version which is client based, the mobile YouTube will be WAP based. It will be interesting to see how YouTube deals with video streaming issues across different carriers, networks and devices. All in all a “two punch strategy”, Google for text and YouTube for video, could end up being very effective.

Nokia has not kept quiet. Unwired view is telling us about Nokia’s patent bound semantic visual search engine, screen shots and further explanation of the search process is provided. Katie Fehrenbacher speculates about the natural synergy with Nokia’s camera phones and if half the rumors are true, Google will soon have to go back to protecting home turf, at least when it comes to search innovation.

Yahoo has not kept silent and may very well be making the most concrete steps to date. The introduction of Mobile OneSearch is a promising mass market step, taking search to every internet enabled phone. Yahoo already offers Yahoo Go, the full blown Yahoo experience, to the high end, and together with OneSearch a comprehensive strategy seems to be forming. 

These seemingly little steps are very significant for a number of reasons. Such proactive steps by handset manufacturers and web titans take the carriers further out of the “next killer app” equation. In addition, these provide indication that search, rich content discovery and messaging are the areas where the leading players look for the next killer app. Search has never been carrier territory and carriers have struggled with putting together winning propositions around content. On the other hand carriers do make a lot of money from content and tons of money from messaging. The battle over who owns what asset is definitely not over, but this time, I believe, the space is mature enough to focus on the criteria for splitting the larger pie rather than fighting over who gets to burn it.

      

MacNN reports that “iPhone makes rare appearance at CTIA - Apple’s iPhone has surfaced in the public eye after a long absence”. Have we all gone insane? I mean, I wrote a poem about it but even that can be excused as a ‘momentary lapse of reason’ driven by the peer pressure that surrounds the digiworld we live in.

A few months passed and I thought we all kicked our hangovers by now. There are still open issues such as battery power, touch screen usability, price, quality of service (no one really knows) etc.

When you encounter a beautiful craft for the first time you tend to ignore the obvious impediments and focus on the romantic and the fantastic. That’s great. Then we should snap out. That is what separates the “men from the boys”. The responsible adult can get excited but also keep realistic.

I found this hilarious widget on apples website - the sasquatch news tracker. If you haven’t snapped out of it yet I this one is for you. Never miss a public appearance, a mysterious unveiling, a behind the scenes glimpse…ooooh

having said that…I still want one badly

      

GigaOM reports that Symbian is about to announce a significant upgrade to its operating system on Monday at CTIA. According to ABI Research, Symbian held a commanding 73% market share of the loosely defined Smart-phone market in 2006, resulting in about 50 Million shipments. 

Improvements include battery and memory management, camera and multimedia enhancements and the introduction of transparent and automatic roaming between WiFi and 3G. MobHappy brings the full details.

The upgrade is very significant for a number of reasons. Symbian is reaching out of the Smartphone niche. The multimedia boost, for example, is clearly a consumer focus. Push email and Voip are communication apps and not “business apps” anymore. Symbian is slowly but surely building an attractive and real consumer position, realizing that the higher end market would pay a little more for high quality feature phone.

The introduction of transparent WiFi - 3G roaming is even more significant. While full handset OEM support is needed, this has the potential of making operator independent mobile internet actually usable. Very few users actually bother with switching networks on an ongoing basis. Making the switch automatic would not only reduce costs for the end user, it would also break a wide open hole in the walled garden. And this does not only apply to browsing but to the very core - phone calls. Now, I don’t see Mobile VOIP going mainstream very soon, but I definitely see a gradual uptake, mostly by the cream of the crop from an operator point of view - the travelling professionals.  

How will Operators deal with this? Good question. So far everybody’s happy with the containment of Symbian devices as “Smartphones”. It makes it easy for everyone to avoid a clash. Some operators force vendors to take off the WiFi feature for now (Cingular and Nokia E62 for example). Some put a more constructive focus on upgrading their 3G networks. In any case, it’s all a prelude to the unavoidable reshuffle of the mobile universe.

      

PayPal is about to make a strategic entry into mobile web with the launch of Mobile Checkout, a mobile service that will allow anyone with a PayPal account to buy things using their mobile browsers. 

Rumors have been flying around as PayPal apparently has been diligently working on the product for quite some time. In fact, I wouldn’t rule out an announcement next week at CTIA. The product is in beta right now and is planned for release later this year. Once out, PayPal Mobile Checkout will allow people to buy stuff they’re searching for on their mobile phones.

We could not get an official comment from PayPal of course, but a credible and passionate inside source has indeed verified the rumor and was kind enough the leak the following screen shot:

The payment process is the same as PayPal online – you enter your PayPal user name and password. Along the way you can create a pin so that future transactions are much faster. You don’t have to fill out a long web form of addresses and credit card numbers – which is unsafe and a pain on a mobile phone.

The mobile web has been yearning for payment solutions for a while now. Premium SMS is commonly used for mobile payments but mostly for single, micro transactions such as voting, media and alerts. While premium SMS is very intuitive, it is not trouble free. Mobile operators grab roughly 50% of the revenue and there have been quite a few reliability issues. The opportunity for real ”Mobile Payments 2.0″ is definitely there.

PayPal announced last week that it has reached 35 Million subscribers in Europe and about 150 Million subscribers worldwide. It was only expected that the successful web giants would start porting their services to the mobile space and PayPal is apparently the first significant player about to make an entry.

      

My buddy Ofer Kalisky referred me to, Musicovery, a BEAUTIFUL Interactive Music Discovery site. I have no idea who the people behind the company are (the corporate identity is hidden), but the creators seem both smart and fun loving!

Musicovery is an open, web radio service. You begin your journey with a navigation widget that helps you pinpoint your starting point according to genre, mood, and era. The widget itself is beautiful, but the real kick is when you start listening. The interactive music map is really cool and intuitive. I keep on playing with it.

Oh, the business model… It kind of looks simple as well. Referrals to Amazon and iTunes for purchasing.

Is simple beautiful or what?

      

I’ve been to enough trade shows by now to know that it is all in the eye of the beholder. A show is good if it was good for you, and 3GSM treated us very well this year. Our service received great feedback, we got covered by El Pais (English translation here) and in addition have generated very high quality business leads. That’s always a very good feeling. I have also managed to tie some loose ends and come full circle with people I lost touch (or good rhythm) with. I guess that’s what a show is essentially about. There were a few share-worthy notes, though:

1. Content is king, again. From low level switch makers, through middleware providers and all the way end user devices - EVERYBODY is betting on the convergence of content. Music, Video, Games, from the PC, from the Internet, it all seems to be rapidly maturing for mobile.

2. Google, Apple, MSN and MySpace did not make an impact at the show. Whether simply not into mobile or just planning to go solo, I question the outcome of this low-key approach. Yahoo! made an exception by pushing a Yahoo Go! booth right at the entry of Hall 7. Great service, by the way, although too “high end” and therefore limited to dedicated Yahoo! fans only.

3. Chauvinism - Are we all dirty old horny men or does someone in LogicaCMG deserve to get his ass kicked? Naked “booth babes” travelling the halls covered with body paint is not just tasteless, it is degrading. And what the hell do naked women have to do with Operator Middleware? I am no conservative, but this was simply bad PR, “gentlemen”!

4. Feminism - The year is 2007 and still, nearly all executives I met were men. Why? When will this finally change already?

5. Consumer - in,