It's clear over the last 18 months that Mobile advertising has become significant, and Facebook has really been at the front of that charge.
A year ago, Facebook made the news with it's new app and phone experience, Home (The second coming of Facebook - Apr. 11, 2013). At the time there was some doubt in the success of Home, and it seems to have played out. Facebook Home's rough start puts Zuckerberg in a tough spot | Internet & Media - CNET News: 'All of these factors lead Sterne Agee to argue that, "Home will probably be great for the avid Facebook users, but it is unlikely to have mass appeal".'
And yet, Facebook has made impressive impacts in becoming a business that makes the majority of its Revenue from Mobile.
So the mobile advertising market has finally lifted off. Driven by Facebook and Google, Mobile Ad Market Soars 105% in 2013 - eMarketer: "The two companies are consolidating their places at the top of the market, accounting for more than two-thirds of mobile ad spending last year—a figure that will increase slightly this year, according to eMarketer."
Clearly there is a big opportunity in this space, but what is most interesting now is to see exactly what the nature of that space is. Now that content is available much more fluidly across multiple devices, the content and advertising messages on those devices should become much more tailored to those contexts. PC Banners have not translated well to Mobile, and seem better replaced by 'Native' ads for that very reason.
I think to a large extent Facebook is the digital display mobile market right now, but is therefore probably not an accurate depiction of where this is really going.
Facebook itself remains heavily engaged across PC and mobile, providing so much inventory, and the have successfully matched it with great execution on mobile advertising right now. But, the acquisitions of Instagram and now WhatsApp show that the leaders at Facebook must be seeing trends indicating lower usage projected than they would like on their core, and a need to hold more engagement on the phone going forward. I think as a social network, their position remains both strong and threatened at the same time.
If that is the case, it's good to see them being so proactive about it, and will be interesting to see if the more negative commentators predictions play out. For example, Mobile Is From Mars, Facebook Is From Venus, And WhatsApp Is Ephemeral | TechCrunch. The take away from this and other analysis on the deal for WhatApp seems to be that while it is an affordable defensive move for Facebook right now, it potentially emboldens and encourages every other messaging app in the market to grow as fast as possible in the hope of similar valuations, and so Facebook may end up helping realize the very threat it seeks to head off, unless it can build some higher barriers to entry.
Beyond Apple, Facebook and Google, it's difficult to even think of apps that are on people's homescreens for long enough to drive significant revenue today on their own. Take Yahoo, a large if struggling internet player. It's a struggle to find even their apps consistently in the top 20, let along 100, apps on the various app stores.
New data from Ofcom shows the average smartphone user in the UK has 23 apps but that the mean number used regularly is just 10. And then the activity time is often sucked up by gaming and music apps, followed by social, rather than the media content that advertisers have placed their ads against on the PC.
I actually wonder whether mobile is ever going to be a profit center for media players, but if simply a necessary investment to meet customer expectations of immediacy and relevance, while making money across other platforms more conducive to media advertising - PC, TV, Game Consoles, even old school newspapers and magazines.
Mohan from Google argues the importance of thinking across all devices, since that is how we all are now behaving, and that makes a lot of sense. Google is probably one company smart and big enough to be able to do it too. Mobile-First Is Dead, Says Google Display Ad Chief Neal Mohan
A year ago, Facebook made the news with it's new app and phone experience, Home (The second coming of Facebook - Apr. 11, 2013). At the time there was some doubt in the success of Home, and it seems to have played out. Facebook Home's rough start puts Zuckerberg in a tough spot | Internet & Media - CNET News: 'All of these factors lead Sterne Agee to argue that, "Home will probably be great for the avid Facebook users, but it is unlikely to have mass appeal".'
And yet, Facebook has made impressive impacts in becoming a business that makes the majority of its Revenue from Mobile.
- From Q3'13 Facebook’s Q3 ’13 Beats With $2.02B Revenue, $0.25 EPS, With 49% Of Ad Revenue Now Via Mobile | TechCrunch
- To Q4'13 Facebook's Q4 2013 Earnings - Business Insider: Facebook Shares Surge On First Ever $1 Billion Mobile Ad Revenue Quarter, making it a Mobile company
- To Q1'14 Facebook now gets 59% of ad revenue from mobile - FierceWireless: Facebook now gets 59 percent of its advertising revenue from mobile, up from 53 percent the fourth quarter and a huge jump from 30 percent in the year-ago period
So the mobile advertising market has finally lifted off. Driven by Facebook and Google, Mobile Ad Market Soars 105% in 2013 - eMarketer: "The two companies are consolidating their places at the top of the market, accounting for more than two-thirds of mobile ad spending last year—a figure that will increase slightly this year, according to eMarketer."
Clearly there is a big opportunity in this space, but what is most interesting now is to see exactly what the nature of that space is. Now that content is available much more fluidly across multiple devices, the content and advertising messages on those devices should become much more tailored to those contexts. PC Banners have not translated well to Mobile, and seem better replaced by 'Native' ads for that very reason.
I think to a large extent Facebook is the digital display mobile market right now, but is therefore probably not an accurate depiction of where this is really going.
Facebook itself remains heavily engaged across PC and mobile, providing so much inventory, and the have successfully matched it with great execution on mobile advertising right now. But, the acquisitions of Instagram and now WhatsApp show that the leaders at Facebook must be seeing trends indicating lower usage projected than they would like on their core, and a need to hold more engagement on the phone going forward. I think as a social network, their position remains both strong and threatened at the same time.
If that is the case, it's good to see them being so proactive about it, and will be interesting to see if the more negative commentators predictions play out. For example, Mobile Is From Mars, Facebook Is From Venus, And WhatsApp Is Ephemeral | TechCrunch. The take away from this and other analysis on the deal for WhatApp seems to be that while it is an affordable defensive move for Facebook right now, it potentially emboldens and encourages every other messaging app in the market to grow as fast as possible in the hope of similar valuations, and so Facebook may end up helping realize the very threat it seeks to head off, unless it can build some higher barriers to entry.
Beyond Apple, Facebook and Google, it's difficult to even think of apps that are on people's homescreens for long enough to drive significant revenue today on their own. Take Yahoo, a large if struggling internet player. It's a struggle to find even their apps consistently in the top 20, let along 100, apps on the various app stores.
New data from Ofcom shows the average smartphone user in the UK has 23 apps but that the mean number used regularly is just 10. And then the activity time is often sucked up by gaming and music apps, followed by social, rather than the media content that advertisers have placed their ads against on the PC.
So perhaps not surprising the Media publishers seem to be struggling with realizing revenues on mobile devices.
The Impact Of Mobile On Publishers -- More Consumption, Less Revenue - Forbes: "The unique product they offer is their branded content, but the
publishers must find ways to distribute the content both to their audience and
through social distribution. This is what BuzzFeed is mastering, and it’s
imperative that the legacy publishers catch-up before they lose out on another
revenue opportunity."I actually wonder whether mobile is ever going to be a profit center for media players, but if simply a necessary investment to meet customer expectations of immediacy and relevance, while making money across other platforms more conducive to media advertising - PC, TV, Game Consoles, even old school newspapers and magazines.
Mohan from Google argues the importance of thinking across all devices, since that is how we all are now behaving, and that makes a lot of sense. Google is probably one company smart and big enough to be able to do it too. Mobile-First Is Dead, Says Google Display Ad Chief Neal Mohan
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