Mobile advertising and media
Google's and Apple's recent acquisitions have helped to reshape the mobile advertising space, and the industry is now holding its breath for the next in what is expected to be a wave of consolidation. Yet that activity has not deterred global ad network InMobi, for example, from expanding its operations (including eyeing a possible launch in the U.S.). New players and a reconfigured landscape understandably generate a lot of interest, but there are other noteworthy developments afoot, all of which should help further propel the mobile advertising market forward in 2010.
One is improved targeting. Mobile has always been about location, but for a host of reasons, real-time, location-based advertising has always fallen short of its promise, particularly for the still-significant portion of mobile users who do not have smartphones. MoVoxx believes it has taken a step toward solving the problem by combining its GeoSense ad platform with merchant data from Citysearch (partnerships with other data aggregators such as iPromote and Marchex are said to be in the works), which gives MoVoxx access to proximity and behavioral data, plus offers from local merchants. Most notably, MoVoxx's inventory covers both SMS and in-app ad units, generating 300 million and 400 million impressions per month, respectively. Other companies in the location-based targeting space include AdLocal, which just entered the U.S. market after establishing itself as a major force in Japan, and Placecast.
Other companies defy easy classification, since they specialize in multiple, albeit complementary areas. One example is Mobclix, a mobile app analytics firm that recently launched an ad exchange featuring inventory from Quattro Wireless, Jumptap, InMobi, VideoEgg, Mojiva, Smaato, Millennial Media, and others (although AdMob is not among the included partners). The exchange helps build scale in a still-fragmented segment and in turn provides Mobclix with more robust app usage data. Another hybrid is Medialets, which offers a rich media and application advertising platform along with application analytics.
More on the media side is Zumobi, a company that started life as a mobile widget developer spun off from Microsoft. It has built apps for MSNBC, "TODAY", "The Rachel Maddow Show", and retailer REI. Zumobi takes a portfolio approach to its app properties, creating a network that advertisers can leverage. And speaking of widgets, Snac offers an innovative ad-supported widget dashboard designed for feature phones (although it is compatible with smartphones as well) that gives users a quick taste ("snacs") of their favorite content (including email, news, sports, social networking, and weather).
