The market for mobile video advertising is improving, but advertisers aren’t serving relevant ads. These are the conclusions that can be made from Knowledge Networks “How People Use Mobile Video 2007” report, released last week.
The report found that 80 percent of mobile users are willing to view ads in exchange for free content, but less than 30 percent feel mobile ads are relevant to them.
The report concluded that mobile video users see little or no difference between mobile video and TV ads in terms of personal relevance or contextual integration with content. The consumers said that mobile video ads are no more influential for them than TV ads.
“Advertisers wisely have entered the mobile video space in a big way,” said David Tice, VP/managing director of Knowledge Networks/SRI. “But so far many seem to have missed the chance to leverage the unique qualities of mobile video, such as intimacy and immediacy. While mobile can indeed by part of larger campaigns, we need to recognize its differences, as well as the ways that different target groups use the medium.”
The study also found that the proportion of cell phones users who pay for mobile video content dropped from 64 percent to 50 percent over the past year.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More