Comments on: Despite Bleak Outlook, Mobile Ad Startups Keep Getting Funded; Amobee Spurns $150 Million Buyout Offer From Yahoo

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:25:05 +0000

the ads are too small and annoying too.

By: gary

gary — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:05:49 +0000

I think that the budget for mobile advertising will be at the upper end of the range being discussed,
why?

Because the likes of Google will find ways of monetising mobile traffic without being too invasive, in fact I’m sure that they will succumb to the temptation of allowing ‘product placement’ type ethics into their business model & sell the top spots in their search results; either that or sell a slot or two on the 1st page of results (at random) so users won’t know which is which.. they seem to have their heads screwed on so I’m sure the clever b*****ds will get the balance about right; creating a win win situation; Google tools help the users & give great freebies etc… in return the users get coerced to use advertisers sites & services without even knowing they’ve been sold too.

All speculation on my part of course.

By: smartphone-freeware.net

smartphone-freeware.net — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:50:35 +0000

Hmm belive me, it pays to have mobile ads … no metter who serves them.
Its like not to love the tv remote controler.

All mobile will go further in its usage that any other desctop of it – stated by http://www.smar...ne-software.net

By: Marco Almondine

Marco Almondine — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 03:31:20 +0000

Ad tolerance begins with screen resolution. When your mobile LCD is 160 x 120 every pixel is precious. When your iPhone has 640 x 480 you can afford to waste some screen area on ads, if it’s a good tradeoff for what you get for free.

Audio ads may (or may not) be annoying, but at least they don’t waste scarce pixels and don’t get in your way. Blocking ads is as simple as turning down the volume.

By: addy

addy — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 22:03:56 +0000

Another Telcom operator (Telefonica) also has invested in Amobee….

By: tomas zeman

tomas zeman — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:38:03 +0000

@15 The point it, that if somebody is telling that there will be no difference in mobile web and traditional web, its just marketing. True is, that big players are creating mobile versions of their sites. Look at Google, they have like 3 different versions of gmail and one extra for iPhone. If company wants to deliver best user experience, they need to create multiple version of their websites, the one for 19″ monitors is not good for the most mobile phones and never will be.

By: Clarence Sikes

Clarence Sikes — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:17:36 +0000

Admob reportedly turned down $400m from Yahoo in October.

By: Ad

Ad — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 08:49:34 +0000

@14, I heard that same pitch in 2000, and the same story has been around since then…the “mobile ads have potential” story.

The truth is that very few are willing to opt in to get pushed ads to their mobile phones, not location based ads or whatever.

And now that there is the “real internet” on a mobile phone, the difference between mobile ads and internet marketing is becoming really thin, which is exactly #15 point.

Location based ads (non-internet based) cannot be pushed to the mobile phone without opt in, generic ads cannot be pushed currently to the mobile without opt in, and so on.

And nobody opts in, because mobile ads are ten degrees worse than spam emails because they reach you wherever you are with your mobile.

Therefore, the “mobile ad” story is just a way to cash in quickly while the VCs or Yahoos of this world haven’t fully figured out the above.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:09:50 +0000

mobilizing media content is booming If your not mobile you will be oldschool.
mobile advertising is real, just look at Admob
the valuation does sound nutty
I came across a company Contec Innovations which will mobilze your content or anyone’s content on any handset with any operator and can place ads
market cap is $7M!!!

By: Pud

Pud — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:45:11 +0000

The problem with mobile ad networks and mobile web businesses, is that the line between mobile and not is blurring.

For example, I am writing this on an iPhone from a Chinese restaraunt in San Francisco. Are the TC ads I see “mobile” ads?

It’s rediculous to talk “mobile ad” projections for 2012. By then certainly there will be no difference between mobile web and not.

I should have been on that panel

Rock on,
Pud
Founder, AdBrite

By: Shai Berger

Shai Berger — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:05:58 +0000

I think it’s a no-brainer that mobile advertising has enormous potential. In the attention economy, that little screen on the handset gets a lot of attention. Combine that with the contextual information that is available on your phone and through your carrier.

What’s not easy is picking a winner this early in the game. But that’s what VC is all about. To win, you need a strong stomach, make some early bets and have patience for the market to mature.

Big hairy challenges:
* large variety in handset capabilities
* 4 major mobile platforms
* No standards for ad format, tracking or reporting
* Carriers (gatekeepers to the customers) are difficult to partner with

*Someone* is definitely going to win big with mobile advertising, I just don’t know who. And I’m glad it’s not my job to pick.

@ tomas zeman: “Operators… need to stop sitting on a stream like a frog.”
I really have no idea what that means.
(But the imagery is pleasant.)
Aren’t frogs supposed to sit in streams?
Is the frog the operator?

By: Don Jones

Don Jones — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:50:24 +0000

Eric Schmidt pointedly disagreed with the low numbers – he thought that with Goog’s initiatives in the mobile sector, $1 billion would look low in hindsight. Wanna bet against Eric?

By: Too bad, developing world has little purchasing power

Too bad, developing world has little purchasing power — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:46:10 +0000

Sorry folks, the 3rd world has little money to spend, and therefore, the marketers do not want to spend their ad dollars in those places the same way. I’m sure this will change over the next 10-15 yrs, but it is not accurate to speak about “mobile penetration in Asia blah blah blah…”

Just being honest

By: Miguel Khoi

Miguel Khoi — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:43:11 +0000

So much of mobile’s growth is in the developing countries like India, South Africa, Indonesia and such (not to mention China, but that market is relatively closed). In these countries, sometimes the cell phone is the only way to get on the internet. There’s a huge demand for mobile content and a huge untapped market. This is something many in the first world don’t see.

Considering the penetration of mobile phones in the world exceeds 50%, far greater than PC. And data usage from the phone is getting more commonplace. Mobile ads will play a big part for publishers to monetizing all these data usage.

By: Jake Smith

Jake Smith — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:10:18 +0000

Amobee’s revenues are less than $1m per year. You can figure out the rest.

By: Ad

Ad — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:42:55 +0000

Ads to mobiles have been around since early SMS systems in the 90s and have burned start-up money for endless millions of dollars without any movement in wireless ad market spend.

If someone outside of VC capital community is willing to justify VC valuations which are projected on expected ad growth, the company should take the money.

That is why I’m very sceptical that Yahoo has really offered to buy Amobee. Very few companies outiside VC circles think those kind of numbers make sense at this point.

When the mobile ad market starts to show signs of life, the current players will be replaced by new companies. That cycle has been done already once, with Amobee being in the second-cycle of these firms.

By: tomas zeman

tomas zeman — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:12:53 +0000

I think that future of mobile advertisement is:

- Ad network needs to cooperate with mobile operators (Amobee is dong it, Admob not and he will be introubles)

- Operators need to start behave as an adults and give access to their data to other companies (under contract), they need to stop sitting on a stream like frog

- Operator need to publish some sort of API with user location and user type, they know if you are man/woman, age, interests etc..

- Advertisements has to be very very very well targeted based on location and user type

- Mobile internet has to be cheaper, operators need to stop chargink per kilobyte right now!

- Operators need to give all partners super cookie in HTTP header (not msidn, but some unique hash), so ad network will be able to track user preferences.

and there hs to be more mobile websites . Thats or goal at http://www.wirenode.com , othervise those add networks will not have place where to put their ads.

By: Brig Graff

Brig Graff — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:01:22 +0000

I think mobile advertising works, when I visit nytimes.com and see their banner ads I dig it. I often click.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:51:09 +0000

two things stand out:

1) If they got offered $150M to $200 Million and turned it down they are complete MORONS!!! Mobile advertising hasn’t taken off yet and if it does at some point they will have 100 more competitors. Greed, greed, greed!

2) Sequoia is behind this deal as well? Damm, they are good! I’m also starting to see Accel creep up on another of deals. I think their association with the “younger crowd” is giving them access to great deal flow. Other VC’s should take note and look to replace their partners that had their operating experience in the 1970’s (that’s if they have any operating experience at all. most of these fools read theory books at Stanford about starting a company).

By: Technicle

Technicle — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:41:46 +0000

Yahoo just need to offer more… right, the more the better (for both)…

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:34:31 +0000

The numbers cited for revenue projections are often confused to justify business models or investors I believe. There is a difference between “mobile advertising” and “mobile marketing”; however, many confuse the two and that is where I believe there is a disparity in the numbers cited. Mobile advertising generally refers to the display of ads on the device via the mobile internet or within games or other mobile content. Mobile marketing is more of a general term referring to all marketing efforts related to mobile (i.e. SMS, WAP, inline ads, etc). It is my opinion that “mobile marketing” revenues will definitely exceed $10 billion worldwide by 2012. “Mobile advertising” revenues, on the other hand, will have a hard time reaching a substantial number until the technology is faster, consumers are more adept to using the mobile internet, and the devices are able to deliver better content. That’s not to say that the growth of mobile advertising will be completely halted until such time though. Companies such as Third Screen Media, Admob, and Enpocket are all driving forces behind the mobile ad space and as such have made substantial revenues matching brands with media outlets and other mobile publishers. Remember 10 years ago everyone was saying the same thing about the Internet and look where Google is today with mobile advertising.

By: WebSideVentures

WebSideVentures — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:07:24 +0000

If done right (contextually relevant and not invasive), I think mobile ads can be an effective part of the marketing mix.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:49:33 +0000

I’ll say it again, take the money and run.

By: bob cobb

bob cobb — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:25:32 +0000

mobile ads are a waste at this point I think. Because everything is still much slower and the screen size is so small click through rates are awful and all it does is annoy the user.