AdMob: building step by step

I noticed on GigaOm that AdMob announced its purchase of AdWhirl. It is an intelligent move from a growing company from whom we have come to expect little else. AdMob proliferated initially from a low value but hugely scaleable ecosystem which basically created an efficient clearing house for advertisers and publishers eager to explore the mobile space.

In reality these advertisers were those already active in the mobile space, arbitraging buying traffic from AdMob and monetising their inventory through various means including AdMob ads. Several businesses were built in similar vein on the desktop through Google. Quality was not high and eCPMs seldom cleared $1 but the poster children of AdMob's early evolution were social networks like Peperonity who had never seen higher than that anyway.

With the advent of the iPhone, AdMob saw (before anyone else) the opportunity for a new type of mobile ad which most people more commonly know as display - though I do not remember AdMob ever referring to them as such. The problem with display, even on a single platform, is that it is not as scaleable a business. Creative types get in the mix, agencies start to muddy the waters and all of a sudden there is a lot of grit in the wheels. AdMob needed to work a lot harder for its money and, as the market grew and people saw the opportunity, the market also fragments.

Now, AdMob has done three smart things all in one. One, it has bought in a dedicated Ad Aggregator and being 'in' means that there is no bridge between the user and AdMob, it will have the data it needs to target its ads more effectively. Two, it has bought a company specialised in creating an exchange of different ad networks (very similar to Google's model in the desktop space) and now can focus on providing the right kind of targeting information to those networks to maximise benefit for Advertiser and Publisher; it can focus on the day job again of being an efficient clearing house rather than a sales house. Three, by making it open source it is basically saying - he is an efficient ad exchange for mobile - it's free, feel free to use it - the more the merrier.

Each time I think AdMob has run out of steam, it makes another intelligent step and may yet make the mobile space its own.

HMV: a lament

I happened to walk into an HMV for the first time this year on Sunday and thought to myself 'Woolworths'. Isn't HMV another dinosaur one step away from the retail dustbin?

In diversifying away from the ever-declining sales of CDs, HMV has struck upon the idea of selling DVDs and Games in exactly the same way, eventhough both of these areas are subject to the same digital competetion as CDs have been.

This store format needs a revolution.

The world has gone digital, except HMV and others of its ilk. At the moment it is engaged in lazy retailing where it can continue to churn the handle for a number of years with a pretty much predictable result until such time as some catalytic event wakes people up to the fact that it is simply no longer relevant.

It should of course be investing in ensuring that it is the dominant internet destination for music, games, films purchases rather than iTunes and Amazon but here it is anonymous.

But, more than that, a little imagination in-store can be used to make sure that HMV realises the benefit of its physical presence in a way that Amazon and iTunes cannot. Let's steal ideas from Apple:

- in house 'geniuses': DJs/mixers who can interpret your tastes to recommend new artists, create a mixed bag for you, author a new tune with a suggested sample track specifically for you
- listening stations where I can interact and talk/IM about what I am listening to with other listeners not just in store but across the HMV network
- take a leaf out of the MTV era (it's been around for ever FFS) and make some visual displays, make them interactive, full of soundbites with clear offers

Your mission: make purchasing online seem like a souless and friendless experience. Music (in particular) is a social meme. Nobody likes to go to a concert on their own.

Shake it up a bit. Fire some people. Take some acid. Whatever. Just take up the fight before you become another Woolworth's flogging what's left for pennies.

Not all doom and gloom

I picked up this quality post from Fred Destin (from Atlas) this morning. There is a difference in the VC industry at the moment between those believing that the current environment heralds a significant shake-up in the number of VCs and those that think that this is a temporarily fallow period. I agree with Fred on the former but also with his assertion that entrepreneurs should not feel daunted about getting started in the current environment: it is a great time in terms of talent on the market, (relative) lack of competition and providing focus.

So whose problem is it?

The wonderful thing about Apple and Google moving into the mobile space (how sad that I do not mention Microsoft* in the same breath) is that they approach it without the usual constraints and filters of the existing players.

Example 1: App Stores. Nokia has had Download! for years but needed Apple's fresh take on how it should be done to wake up and realise that its own realisation was poor and out of touch.

Example 2: Apple's iPhone completely transformed the way that phones look and the touch screen with the "pinch" is the most significant innovation in hardware design for many years. Again, no established mobile player could think so out of the box.

Example 3: Nokia makes Symbian open source in response to Android's shake up of the mobile OS layer. Why didn't it do so before? Because it was embroiled in the space and could not think without these limits.

There is an interesting storm brewing at the moment about the roaming costs of the iPhone and Android devices. One thing is that people are using them to browse more than is usually the case but added to that the apps on them are regularly connecting to their servers to report back on usage and to facilitate email download. You are only partially notified that this will happen when you download them and it is easily forgotten. So, you go abroad, barely use your phone and not for data at all because you know it costs you dearly, and still receive bill shock when the next one arrives.

So, whose problem is this?

Well, at the moment it is the consumers but it is interesting to see who will blink first:

The operator view is this is a phone issue and the manufacturer should fix it by allowing complete data disablement.
The web view is that this exposes poor customer value created by the operators and they should fix it.


The web giants are clearly in the right in this case as regards customer value. I suspect that they saw this one coming and clearly strategised that the only way to solve these inefficiencies would be to dump the problem in the operator's lap.

Well, it is being dumped as we speak. Let's see what happens next.


(* The thing with Microsoft is a little ironic. When Microsoft began its move into the mobile space it was still 'the' company to fear from a carrier perspective and so it was dealt with very gingerly and with the utmost caution = slow progress. It also sought to sell to the operators which means that its OS was far more geared to operator requirements than either iPhone or Android. And yet, despite this it has not become a meaningful player. I think that had it started its sales run a few years later (when Google was becoming a perceived threat to the operators) or if it had the vision (requiring a complete philosophical transformation) to create its own Android equivalent it would have made for a different story).

UPDATE: A far more detailed and profound post on this data issue can be found at Disruptive Wireless - here)

Nokia World - am I the only one disappointed

Just a short note.

A couple of years ago Nokia made a big play that it wanted to be an internet play and not a device manufacturer. It undertook a phenomenal effort to transform its business, people and processes to this end. I thought it visionary and absolutely the right call.

This year from Nokia World the headline announcement was the launch of a device - the N97, a potential iPhone killer.

I cannot contain my disappointment. It has nothing to do with the device - it might be brilliant.

But rather to the outsider looking in, the conclusion has to be that rather than Nokia transforming to challenge the established internet giants in a play for the web services layer on mobile, it is sent scurrying back to its home turf because the web giants have beaten it to the punch (with the iPhone and Android).

Nokia is in reactive rather than proactive mode at the moment. It is the best positioned of all the traditional mobile players but even so struggling to prevail.

Everything you wanted to know about Google......

Caught over at Techcrunch - a really interesting presentation about Google written by a French consulting firm, Fabernovel.

All about Google

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: google business)

Recommended Reading

I caught this article by David Wood on his personal blog. It is a transcript of his keynote to Mobile 2.0 this year concerning the role of the mobile operating system, open source and symbian's evolution. It is worth reading. (The wonder of the internet that something like this is so easily shared - you did not have to be in San Francisco to benefit from it).