Riding the wave....

As most companies and start-ups are bunkering down to ride out the financial crisis, one company, AdMob, founded by Omar Hamoui, is riding the wave that many are still trying to catch. Omar says that AdMob reaches more consumers on their mobile phones than any of the major Internet portals or search engines. A very bold statement one might think, but when you see that the number of ads served on a monthly basis have tripled to 4.6 billion in September coupled with more than 25 campaigns for brand advertisers including CoverGirl, Toshiba and Comedy Central, the company is certainly leaving foam in its path.

Despite the slowdown in consumer spending and tightening of credit that has led some advertisers to pull back, rather than retrench, Omar said he wants to move aggressively to capture market share. AdMob plans to use $15.7 million in Series C funding to hire employees in key markets in Western Europe, India, South Africa and Japan, to improve the technology that powers its mobile advertising marketplace and grow its sales and business development teams.

Sequoia Capital, one of companies leading Series C funding, is betting that AdMob is well-positioned to benefit from the exponential growth and stunning changes taking place in the mobile landscape. Sequoia partner Jim Goetz says "There are people out there who we do not think are insane who think the smartphone in the next decade will begin to replace the desktop PC."

Time will tell, but if you are well positioned to catch the next wave....you will certainly have a fun time riding it.

Australian Chris

Catching that next wave...

I just checked out an online presentation from the folks over at the Tokyo based Infinita Inc. and came across yet another informative arrangement of mobile stats, insights and other goodies. The author of these reports, Christopher Billich was recently in Singapore at the Youth Marketing Forum 2008 to give his presentation entitled: Harnessing Mobile Marketing to Connect with Today’s Youth. As I went through, I was thinking that this presentation was much the same as many of his others in that current mobile functionality topics were covered along with examples of mobile campaigns by large companies. However, that is when I stopped to think about this a little more. I looked at his stats section again and really concentrated on what is being shown here and what I found were key youth metrics such as time spent on mobile web by youth aged 16-24 essentially exploding.

61% of these youth spend one hour or more per day on their mobile web!
90% of youth use the mobile web daily!
42% of youth aged 10-19 rated mobile first, as the medium which matters most to them!
(This stat topping TV (25%), PC (22%) amongst others included in that survey)

What do these stats mean to mobile CRM opportunities? Well, they mean a lot if you are in any way positioned within this market. The signs are there for exponential growth in the near future. Look no further than Mr. Billich’s collection of stats on mobile advertising. One could be a bit put off by the fact that at present advertisers are only directing 1% of budgets towards mobile campaigns. However, looking closer we realize that the year on year growth dating back to 2005-2006 was +35.4% and 2006-2007 coming in at +59.4%. Still not impressed? Okay, how about the fact, that last year alone the equivalent of half a billion U.S. dollars was spent on mobile advertising and this stat is expected to double by 2011.

Is this sinking in? I certainly hope so because this is where this market is going. The bigger companies with larger exploratory budgets are starting to realize this, as it is not unusual to see campaigns by MacDonalds, Nike, Gucci etc. on the mobile web. It is an exciting time for companies which harness mobile CRM systems. In addition, this can be a fun time for mobile CRM developers as well as the end users who ultimately are able to enjoy these new and unique ways of company/customer interaction. Just see my colleague, Chris Delcourt’s recent posts on this and you begin to get the idea.

In closing, we can see certainly see the signs of change on their way within the mobile CRM industry. This advance which is being led by today’s youth, is gaining in strength and it will not be long before a number of companies are suffering the consequences of ill preparation. Conversely those which keep tabs and position themselves well have the potential to ride this proverbial mobile CRM wave to new frontiers.

Canadian Chris

"Virtual wife" to combat metabolic syndrome

Does your husband have an expanding waist line and it doesnt seem to be stopping? Do you constantly nag him to cut back on his eating and drinking habits and for him to exercise daily, only to fall on deaf ears? Do you wish their was a service which could do this for you daily?

No, this is not an info commercial.....

The increasing concern of the dreaded metobolic syndrome has led to a number of services being developed to target this ever expanding market. One of those services called “Virtual Wife”, a service from Metaboinfo.com, definitely stands out as it incorporates mobile phones as a means to instruct and communicate with their bulging clients.

Subscribers to the free service can choose from one of four virtual wives, who include...

• a cute café maid,
• a cool S-type analyst,
• a kind motherly nurse, and a
• fashionable gyaru nail artist...

....and you can even pick her name. Users then input their height, weight, and lifestyle habits. Then each day, users receive 4 emails from their virtual wife that include nagging reminders and comments not to engage in unhealthy habits (excessive eating, drinking, smoking....) and suggestions for reaching their target body weight. This is done all in a tone of voice appropriate to the chosen character. The service also includes a “meal management tool” with a space to input a menu and find out how many calories.

As you can see the ubiquitious nature of mobile phones is being incorporated in our lives in more ways than one....and hopefully for a better cause.

Australian Chris

Taxi ads anyone?

Today’s post is an interesting one about an article I recently came across. It centers on the use of wireless technology being applied within the realm of advertising. The idea revolves around static, moving and interactive ads being placed both within and on top of taxis. Where this gets exciting however, is with regards to the digital screens and how they are mounted on the roof of the car. These screens which are 152cm long are double sided and also contain a global positioning system receiver, enabling the screens to promptly display ads according to both geographic locations and timed exposures.

What this means is that special deals such as lunch offers for example, can be sent out for one restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo as the taxi passes by at 12pm and that same taxi can circle back around 6pm with a new dinner ad for the same restaurant. The flexibility offered in terms of content is exactly what marketers want and throw this technology into a densely populated area and you have a new type of ad to really catch some attention.

Now bringing this technology around and relating it to mobile it would not be a stretch to imagine a hybrid campaign incorporating a call to action from a passerby who notices one of these ads as it whizzes by. Advertisers could have mobile landing sites created to direct that consumer to a particular offer. That idea alone echos one of the new rules for ad based CRM system success, which states that the most successful mobile campaigns rely on traditional ad styles—T.V., print, banner/sign—to augment and enhance the distinct capabilities offered by mobile phone advertising. That rooftop taxi sign is certainly a blend of traditional sign based ads, but on steroids per say with its moving, flashing, time and location based ads.

In addition, this new pull based advertising model in which the advertiser is not cramming the product news or information down the consumer’s throat is definitely another idea which must be fully comprehended by content providers. This idea also seems to follow suit in this regard.

This notion is not new as it was first introduced within the U.S. around the year 2000 in New York City and spread to other major American cities. This begs the question as to why, this technology has not taken off yet all over major cities? Why, is it that here in Japan, with the number of ads being served and technology being at such a high level, that such a site is not common within the likes of Tokyo or Osaka? Despite potential outlays of capital, surely there would be major advertisers ready to jump on this one. I would appreciate any thoughts or comments…

Canadian Chris

The sky is falling....and people are losing money!

......As people maybe thinking that the sky is falling...well not really... but as the economic crisis hurts people on paper...I am sure they are thinking the sky is falling......

So, apart from the devastating and somewhat sickening roller-coaster affect on the Nikkei and markets around the world being brainwashed to us on TV, the effects on the global mobile phone market is definitely a market that the TV media seems to be over-looking.

The global mobile phone market has been forecasted to grow at much slower-than-expected rates next year as consumers put off buying new devices due to deepening economic concerns. While mobile phone industry executives often say mobile phones are the last thing consumers will give up, in order to save money, analysts are now forecasting longer phone replacement cycles and weaker sales estimates as a result of weakening economies around the world. Consumer reluctance to upgrade phones coupled with modest growth in China, the downturn to take toll on mobile phone growth is forecasted to reduce global handset growth to around 3 percent from 6 percent, with particular weakness in Europe and North America.

The not so rosey news comes as major phone vendors are betting on the success of higher-end, Internet-enabled smartphones, following the popular Apple iPhone. HP, for example, is expected to be driving into the consumer smartphone market with a new iPAQ model later this year.

Well, with the global credit crunch and possibilities of a global recession ahead of us, all I can say really is.........

....as sand falls through the hour glass these are the days of our times....

Australian Chris

The Nuts and Bolts of Global Mobile Stats

I recently came across a nice little online presentation of global mobile stats—1H 2008—assembled by the ever in touch Chetan Sharma. He is the author of Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand, as well as a new book entitled Wireless Broadband: Conflict and Convergence. His insights and coverage of mobile developments are always sharp and certainly worth reviewing if one truly wants to get a feel for where things are in terms of growth and expansion of mobile markets. As such, I would like to throw a few of his nuts and bolts stats together for you in this post today.

· Global wireless markets continue to grow rapidly with China and India adding about 9M subscriptions a month. India currently has over 300M subscriptions and China has over 600M.
· Global mobile revenues are likely to reach over 1 trillion (U.S. figures) with 800 billion being attributed to service revenues.
· Mobile Data is contributing close to 40% of revenue for leading operators
· Overall, the world market mobile penetration rate is now over 50%
· The U.S. edged Japan again as the most valuable mobile data market in service revenue with the U.S. coming in at $15.7B versus Japan at $13.6B. As a side note, China was third with $7.8B.
· During the last nine years at DoCoMo overall APRU has declined 33% though data APRU has increased over 1800% and accounts for over 40% of revenues. Voice APRU has declined nearly 60% in that same time.
· For the last couple of years DoCoMo has been the only carrier exceeding $10B in yearly revenue, however later this year expected newcomers to this exclusive club are KDDI, Verizon Wireless and ATT.
· China Mobile is number one in subscriptions at 428M with Vodafone number two at 269M and coming in at third was China Unicom at 171M.

Rank by subscriptions:

1) China 2) India 3) U.S. 4) Russia 5) Brazil

Rank by Data Revenue:

1) U.S. 2) Japan 3) China 4) U.K. 5) Italy

Well, as you can see these stats are enlightening in many ways, as one could spend a post dissecting each point. I hope these stats are helpful for those looking to gain that global perspective of where the global mobile market really is. To see the full presentation please, see Chetan Sharma’s blog site as it is chalked full of various stats and other goodies.

Canadian Chris

Cell phone-Web users.....a driving force

The expansion and exponential growth of the use of the internet via PC's has been astounding to say the least and it is now quite clear that advertising on the net is definitely a necessity of a company's advertising and marketing strategy. So, apart from the traditional mediums of TV, newspaper, magazines and radio and now obviously the internet, what is the next frontier of advertising?

Well, a recent article in the Nikkei Weekly, September 29th, 2008 edition, "Surveying cell pone-Web users" stated that people in Japan are not only using PC's to access the internet but indeed nearly as many are accessing via cellphones. At the end of last fiscal year 72 million subscribers accessed the web with their handsets while 78 million accessed using fixed-line PC’s according to Ministry data.

However, despite the near equal usage numbers, the ad-market for mobile websites was only 62 billion JPY compared to 600 billion JPY for all Internet ads. Definitely not a SMALL difference! In light of these somewhat surprising statistics, a group of some 40 companies including Coca-Cola (Japan), and Matsushita Electric Industrial and as well as web agencies such as Nifty, mobile phone site operator DeNA (Mobage Town site) and NetRatings Japan have established a study group to identify a common system to quantify mobile web usage.

"If we can conduct audience surveys targeting cell phone users, as we now do for PC users, the growth of the mobile ad market will accelerate" Mobile Internet Capital Inc. President, Isuo Nishioka.

Side note: Thank you to Wireless Watch Japan for the Nikkei Weekly pdf attachment.

Australian Chris

"The Times They Are a Changin..."

Exciting times we are living within I say. It sometimes takes a moment, thought or experience for that powerful realization to kick in though. I had one of those conscience awakening flashes this past week. I was thinking about this mobile revolution we are living through these days and just how quickly the technology is evolving. It really doesn’t seem all that long ago, when we were all gaga over the internet and what it potentially had to offer. Now, I know the internet is still developing and has much more to offer, however, one would be missing something if he or she didn’t realize that there has been a distinct shift in focus for a lot of companies—Google, Microsoft, Apple—towards mobile technology and development and this little device, which nearly all of carry on a daily basis.

The ubiquitous or ‘always on’ nature of this tool has had people drooling over possibilities for years. Since the keitai’s (Japanese word meaning mobile) inception the possibilities and discussions of developing a universal ‘life remote control’ have been thrown about more times than one can count. However, ten years back or even five years ago those were all just possibilities. Well, fast forward to the present and look around! My, oh my, have we come a long ways from those dreams.

To add some perspective, I picked up Rick Matheson’s book entitled Branding Unbound which basically covers the ‘future’ of advertising, sales and brand experience in the wireless age. This book was first published in 2005, which just under four years ago. Not that long ago right? Wrong! Especially if you are thinking in terms of keitai development, mobile CRM systems and the like! I found a passage in his book—which is an excellent read, or rather was excellent in 2005, but now somewhat dated and most useful to geeks like myself, who blog about the historical evolution of mobile developments. Yes, I am a techno. nerd. However, this book really allows one to see just how far we’ve come. Read, reflect and enjoy a quote lifted from Branding Unbound and an individual called Kenny Hirschorn, the director of strategy, Imagineering, and futurology for U.K.-based mobile carrier Orange:

“A few years from now, the phone call is going to be the lowest piece on the food chain. Of course, we will still facilitate voice communication. But on a daily basis, we will also awaken you in the morning. We will read you your email. We will start the oven. We will arrange transportation to and wherever you want to go. At the office, we will provide you with information and news.”

Check, check and check so far, in terms of what we are currently doing.

“We will translate information into foreign languages, or translate information into your language for you. We will track your health. We will track your family member’s location, if that’s what you want. We’ll be your bank, we’ll provide you with customized news and entertainment and we’ll even monitor your housing security as you sleep at night.”

Sound exciting? Not really eh. Why? Well, we have that technology right now, at least within Japan. That is all pretty much basic and wouldn’t raise an eyebrow to most within this country. That however, is my point you see, This device is rapidly altering the way most of us live and this change is happening now!

Companies or individuals willing to put the time in are leading the charge now, but as we all know, the old adage about today’s leader not always equaling tomorrow’s is something to keep in mind. Especially, for those of us who are big or small movers and shakers in this world of mobile technology and development. Just as Bob Dylan had it right in the sixties with his album about change and revolution, I too would like to join the chorus and hum away to these changin times.

As always, I invite comments about this post and others. In addition, I invite comments on how to introduce more readers to our blog.

Canadian Chris

Gyaru ?????!!!!!

As one can see and definitely experiences everyday and everywhere, the ubiquitoius nature of keitai in society is not only Japan specific. And even fads and trends that have once been Japan specific, such as cosplay, have permeated the cultural boundaries of other countries. So, this brings me to the unique world of gal or as they say in Japan, gyaru, and its ketai culture.......

"Gyaru (ギャル) is a Japanese transliteration of the English word gal. The term gradually drifted to apply to a younger group, whose seeming lack of interest in work or marriage gained the word a "childish" image. It is now used almost interchangeably with kogyaru and younger generations." So, if you happen to be in the Shibuya or Shinjuku neighborhood, Tokyo, Japan, I would bet you my 'pocket money' that you would have a high chance of bumping into one.

Ok, so your thinking fine...gyaru is merely a fashion sub-culture in Japan that is yet to be seen in other parts of the world......... True, but there's more. Not only is gyaru a fashion sub-culture with its own sub-sub-cultures it has also integrated its own perculiar and very distinct form of ketai writing (mobile phone shorthand).

Introducing........GYARU MOJI!

To explain the wonders and mysteries of gyaru moji, I need to incorporate the help of wikipedia. Gyaru-moji replaces characters with visually similar characters or combinations of characters. It incorporates many hiragana, katakana and kanji which are taken apart and reassembled using different characters including alphabet characters. So, for example Lt wouldn't correspond to the Latin characters 'L' and 't' but instead it would correspond to the hiragana, け ('ke'). Notice that it looks very similar when written. It is unclear why this usage is now seen.....and it may remain to be unclear.

So, what I am wondering now is.....what's next? And upon realizing the fact that there will be a next sub-culture and sub-sub-culture in both the real and technological worlds....I am happy to say....it certainly keeps things interesting and intriguing.

Australian Chris