Mobile Connect

The recent high-value acquisitions of DrawSomething’s parent company (OMGPOP) by Zynga, and Instagram’s acquisition by Facebook represent a stunning change in the way that software companies think about their clientele.

Up until the very recent past, software developers and publishers were focused on crafting products intended for the highly-profitable markets of desktop personal computers, and (in the case of games) home consoles, like the Sony Playstation and the Nintendo Wii. Portability was not a major concern, except in the case of gaming, where some of the content for the console might have been translated into content for their smaller handheld console cousins. For example, there are several versions of Grand Theft Auto for the PlayStation Portable, and one of the showpieces for the new Playstation Vita is a scaled-down handheld exclusion Uncharted adventure.

With the advent of the smart phone and the modular application of apps, software producers found themselves in a unique position. They had existing, valuable intellectual properties in the form of their powerful desktop programs, and the public was clamouring for portable versions of those apps. People wanted to be able to do their office work on the go, so scaled-down office suites became available. Other applications soon followed, and once the notion had firmly set in that you could do pretty much anything with a smart phone, provided you had the right app, well, the flood gates were opened. More and more software found its way onto the mobile platform – not only because of improved computing power and amazing portability, but also because today’s mobile devices are connected, making the handling of information, especially the transfer of files to and from the device, much much easier.

None of this is particularly new. Most people who use smart phones are aware of all of this – it’s almost ancient history by now. Some of these developments are the very reason why mobile phones and other mobile devices have become so pervasive, and have been pointed to as the basis for treating mobile as the next great mass media (and rightly so), and in fact one that has communication built into its very fabric.

But the great change represented by DrawSomething and Instagram is something completely different – and something that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. For the first time, apps have proven to have great value – not a best-selling game cartridge for a home game system, not a must-have word-processing program for a home computer, not even the latest version of an operating system, a must-buy for anyone who wants to keep their PC up to date. No, both these apps were developed for, and sold completely, on mobile platforms. (Both DrawSomething and Instagram are available for iOS and Android.)

And, actually, they weren’t sold on mobile platforms. Both Instagram and DrawSomething are available FOR FREE.

Absolutely free.

Gratis.

No cost at all.

There is a paid version of DrawSomething that disables the in-app advertising, and offers some coins (the game’s in-app currency for purchasing add-ons), but that’s about it.

So, from making high-priced software for desktop machines, the software industry has come to the point where the two biggest newsmakers in recent times are free apps for mobile devices. The implications are many: connectivity/social is a powerful force, mobile is the way forward, free is not bad (because free to the consumer doesn’t mean no money or no profit for the developer). There are bound to be others, which may only make themselves visible in the days to come. For now, one thing is for certain – these are interesting times, and if it’s this exciting today, imagine what it’s going to be like tomorrow?

There’s no doubting the potential of mobile in Asia. The numbers keep rolling in. Forbes just reported the findings of the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index report, and the numbers are truly impressive. Monthly global mobile traffic is estimated to exceed 10 exabytes by 2016. (An Exabyte is one million terabytes.) Hard as it is to imagine that amount, forty percent of that amount of traffic will come from Asia.

Mobile data usage in Asia is set to explode. There was 205,624 terabytes of mobile data traffic per month in 2011 – but according to the estimates, that volume will grow to 4,322,879 terabytes per month in 2016. That’s approximately 21 times the 2011 figure, which works out to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 84% projected over a five-year span. This growth is likely to be driven by those Asian nations whose populations are avid users of mobile communications: primarily Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and China, but other nations (such as the Philippines and India) are not too far behind, and may in fact overtake them in the years to come. China alone is set to account for over 10% of the world’s mobile data traffic by 2016.

These figures make it clear that Asia is going to catch up to the rest of the world in terms of mobile data usage, and if anything, mobile data traffic will be the figure to watch in Asia. But what will all these mobile users be doing with all that data?

Extrapolating from current mobile activity, it seems logical to assume that much of the activity will be the same as what that powers the Internet, only this time on the mobile platform. Email will remain a communication constant, as are various instant messaging or chat options. Users have come to depend on the ‘net for quick, reliable access to information, whether it is through search, or through local review/recommendation platforms. Mobile additionally enables access as location-aware search that can deliver contextually appropriate information. Mobile is also becoming a platform for social media activity, with the human instinct to connect to other people being the driver of this movement. And of course, entertainment (primarily in the form of games) is another function that fills the mobile space.

Beyond that, however, the sky’s the limit. Any other answer would be pure speculation, and the truth is that it is impossible to predict with any certainty what new technology or functionality will arise to take advantage of the vast amounts of mobile data that will be used. The only certainty is the incredible potential inherent in the mobile platform – and it will indeed be interesting to see how people will take advantage of it.

Any organism or organisation that grows will have its own growing pains, problems that arise as a result of increasing size and complexity. As with any maturing industry, mobile marketing has come up against its own growing pains – limited infrastructure, issues of measurement, and so on. Steps are being taken to address those issues, but the one thing that stands in the way is a lack of industry cooperation.

This is unsurprising. Like any other ecosystem, every separate part of the mobile marketing industry is intrinsically selfish. After all, the first priority for any business is to continue to exist, before even considering issues of profit or expansion. Looking out for number one is a natural enough instinct, particularly in the competitive world of business. As the saying goes, it’s a dog eat dog world out there – so it pays to be aggressive, bark loudly, and bite if you have to.

But even in nature, different parts of the ecosystem may find reasons to work together, for mutual benefit – or, in some cases, to prevent extinction altogether. It looks like this is true for mobile marketing as well.
Stress points exist. Brands want to reach out to Singaporeans, but in order to do so, must find a way to negotiate not with one telco, but with three. Each one has information about its own subscribers, and can provide access to the same, but would they cooperate with the other companies to allow for a coordinated, nationwide campaign that ran across all the networks? The same is also true for other parts of the ecosystem, even as the different levels (brands, agencies, ad networks, service providers, and other vendors) work together.

Information-sharing, too, is another pinch point. Marketers would love to have access to the data that service providers hold, but are limited by laws and policies about consumer privacy and data protection. Even aggregated demographic data would greatly ease the targeting of marketing material, but that requires a level of sharing that is currently not happening within the industry.

Companies are already aware of their obligations to the societies within which they operate. Called Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, many companies have schemes or programmes where they give back, through donations of time and money or otherwise, to the community, helping to improve the lives of the less fortunate among us. Perhaps the time is ripe for something new – for companies to think about their Corporate Industry Responsibility, their obligation to help the industry as a whole move forward.

This would involve new levels of cooperation, perhaps putting aside consideration in return for a longer-term benefit that would help everyone. Sharing of information would make measurement efforts much easier, for example, as would making access to networks a little more transparent. Perhaps permission-based data gathering would benefit consumers, who might then enjoy not having spam, but instead receiving much more informative and valuable marketing information.

The possibilities are many, and getting there will be far from easy – there are many frameworks that need to be set in place, as well as concessions and agreements that need to be made. But if companies can work together, whether from different parts of the ecosystem or whether they are direct competitors, then perhaps the industry as a whole could move forward.

That is one function of the Mobile Marketing Association, to act as the space for continuing industry dialogue, and perhaps as neutral ground where companies can come together to exercise some of their CIR. The annual Mobile Marketing Association Forum is one of many venues where these conversations happen – and the next one is the MMA Forum Singapore, 23-25 April at the Grand Hyatt Singapore.

With any luck, corporate industry responsibility will kick in – already, companies are working together with the MMA on issues like standardized measurement, so there is definitely hope for the future.

Go to any shopping centre these days and you can see how mobile devices have become an essential part of the retail experience. Mobile technology has changed the way consumers make purchase decisions. Savvy consumers are more likely to use mobile devices rather than PCs as their shopping tools. They have discovered a range of functions in their mobile devices that can help them, from access to product information to mobile coupons and social shopping. Feature-rich mobile apps can also make shopping more fun, interactive and convenient.

As the use of mobile devices continues to grow in the near future, mobile devices will create more and better connections between consumers and brands. This reflects the already positive consumer response to mobile marketing, a trend that will definitely continue in the future.

Mobile devices are no longer merely an access point for online shopping. According to Accenture, 73 per cent of consumers are likely to use mobile apps as their personal shopping assistants when they go to retail stores instead of interacting with sales staff. More and more, the mobile device is becoming a fully integrated part of the shopping experience.

The individual consumer’s purchase decision journey has been profoundly changed. Consumers put more thought into their purchases, and are more active in evaluating product choices by gathering product information and reading reviews. The immediate access to information Is crucial, and one that can be enhanced through the mobile channel.

More importantly, mobile devices present the opportunity for consumers to interact with the brand and further process their purchase decision immediately. Even when they are in-store, at the point of purchase, consumers are likely to compare the specific available products, evaluate prices, and try to understand the value and benefits of these products using their mobile devices before making a purchase.

Given this changing consumer behaviour, there is an opportunity for mobile marketing to take place in the retail environment itself, a reflection of the growing importance of mobile marketing in a dynamic market. Marketer’s can take the opportunity to generate a sense of immediacy along with a convenient shopping experience, which is what consumers look for. In-store mobile marketing represents the best integration of digital technology and the authentic store experience.

Marketers can create touch points to facilitate the consumer purchase journey. Mobile marketing can enhance the retail experience, incorporating essentials such as product and price information, customer service, product sharing, personalized customer data, barcode scanning, location-based services, and payments. For instance, consumers are likely to search for the nearest locations of the specific brand, use mobile barcodes to gather more information about the products and enjoy mobile coupons that can be redeemed in the store immediately. All of the features of the mobile channel can be used to improve the shopping experience and enhance customer value.

The challenge for marketers is to not only develop strategic approaches but also come up with creative solutions. The integration of strategic and creative approaches will effectively create more appealing content that will resonate with the brand in the market. Mobile marketing can also create a high level shopping experience by integrating compelling digital content and in-store experience. It is easy to deliver rich media content over mobile devices, building on in-store displays and providing additional information. This can play an important role in engaging consumers with the brand. Consumers are looking for credible and trusted information covering all needed categories, along with interactive visualization, which enables them to interact with the brands at higher emotional levels. Branded mobile applications, too, have transformed shopping, and social media can lift shopping into a social interaction.

These methods can all enhance the shopping experience for mobile users, enriching their time on the shop floor, and making shopping more convenient and fun. Pairing shopping experiences with mobile devices can also effectively increase the level of immediate sales conversion, which enables the business to further build the brand value and achieve the goals in the future. The opportunities are great, and consumers have already shown their willingness to use their devices to add to their own shopping. It is time for mobile marketers to join the party.

The news coming out of Indonesia in recent times has been troubling.

First there was the report in the Jakarta Post that scammers were cheating people out of their mobile credits, tricking them into signing up for premium services which are difficult to unsubscribe to, and then slowly leeching their precious prepaid credits.

Then later the Jakarta Globe carried a report that research showed that Indonesia was one of the world’s worst spammers – not very bad in itself, but a sign, perhaps, that spammers were using Indonesia as the location from which to send spam out en masse.

Most recently, there have been reports that workers at Telkomsel, one of Indonesia’s major carriers, are striking for better benefits. This strike (which was meant to last a month) has been called off, but unhappiness is still rife and there may be more industrial actions to come.

This is not the best news for the telecommunications industry in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. It is particularly unsettling because in so many ways, Indonesia’s mobile space shows great promise and potential.

A recent report from Google, for example, points out that internet use is rapidly overtaking television as the Indonesians’ media channel of choice, a change largely attributed to the availability and high take-up rate of low-cost smartphones. It was only at the end of October when Reportlinker released research that predicted that the mobile market in Indonesia is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% in terms of revenues from 2008 to 2014. Indonesia continues to lead the world in the use of Facebook, with around 45 million users, again attributable to mobile- or mobile-based web use of the service. (India is rapidly catching up, though, with 30 million users.)

Hopefully these are all just growing pains, as Indonesia’s economy continues to grow at an astounding rate. Part of the reason for the industrial action, after all, was the perceived success of Telkomsel, whose star is seen to be rising in the wake of the population’s massive take-up of mobile phones. If the company is doing so well, the logic seems to go that their workers should get some of the benefits, and in fact one of the benefits being asked for was that each worker should get a cellular phone.

The fourth-most populous nation in the world, with a population of 240 million, Indonesia may be Southeast Asia’s sleeping giant, the largest powerhouse economy in Southeast Asia, with untapped resources that could lead to even greater growth. Recently, Indonesia has really come a long way, riding the crest of the new Asian growth spurt. This growing affluence is making itself felt in the mobile space, too, as Indonesia’s mobile penetration rates skyrocketed in the last few years. It seems that these latest troubles are just the signs of Indonesia’s awakening, as its population faces cybercrime as a result of a substantial number of people being online for the first time in their lives.

Hopefully these are only bumps in the road, minor pratfalls as Indonesia makes its way forward. In the mobile marketing space, Indonesia continues to be the hotspot where so many interesting, original and creative campaigns emerge, and its population is uniquely open to the mobile channel. With any luck, cooler heads will prevail, and Indonesia will continue to rise, getting better and better as it finds its feet and joins the world as yet another economic superpower.

Mobile marketers may find that asking for permission and working with consumers can drastically improve their results

As children, we were taught the importance of seeking permission. We’ve been told that seeking permission is not only the polite thing to do; it is in fact, the right thing to do. Growing up, we discovered that asking for permission increases the chance of things going our way. We also understand that others should treat us the same way.

Apply the same theory to mobile marketing. After understanding our consumers, asking them for permission is the next step. Permission-based mobile marketing is about getting permission from your target audiences before sending them marketing messages on mobile devices. This form of marketing aims to lessen the intrusiveness of mobile advertising as compared to traditional methods of broadcast marketing, making consumers more comfortable with the marketing messages they receive. It enables brands to move from broadcasting messages to a group of consumers in their databases to engaging a deeper conversation with customers who are loyal to the brands. The mobile channel is the best medium for permission marketing because it allows brands to finally fulfill customer relationship management’s promise of one-to-one marketing; dealing with each person as an individual.

Being one of the first few brands to run campaigns on Mobinil’s new permission-based marketing program named Mobinil Ads, Adidas wanted to target early adopters, attracting them to its new flagship Adidas Originals store in Cairo by emphasizing its brand values of originality and innovation.

Using interactive dialogue, Adidas Originals invited targeted consumers to discover more about their brand and what it could offer. Consumers who gave an instant reply received a follow-up multimedia message encouraging them to visit the new Cairo store and claim a limited edition Adidas Originals gift. The campaign started on a Wednesday of that week so that it could encourage message recipients to visit the store over the coming weekend. Messages were sent only to members who explicitly shared that they had an interest in fashion and sports when they registered for Mobinil Ads.

By the end of the campaign, Adidas achieved a 35% response rate. It was clear that Adidas was connecting with a receptive, highly targeted audience, both men and women most of them aged between 15 – 24, delivering increased ROI.

Research done recently by Alcatel-Lucent with 2,223 mobile youth in 11 countries revealed a strong inclination towards permission-based mobile marketing. Results showed that three in five youth would have an increased likelihood of purchasing products and services from preferred brands using a permission-based mobile marketing service; four in five youth noted the importance of mobile ads to be based on their interests, likings and preferences; four in five youth considered it really important to gain consent before sending advertising messages on mobiles.

Both of these demonstrate the potential of permission-based mobile marketing. Brands can use permission-based marketing to build and foster close relationships with their consumers, making their consumers more receptive towards brand engagement. When executed correctly, permission-based mobile marketing can also garner a high level of opt-in rates and good returns. Without having to deal with unsolicited messaging, brand marketers can now focus on marketing to the right people thereby increasing productivity, efficiency and in return, saving advertising costs.

InMobi’s securing of $200 million of funding from SoftBank is a portent of much future growth for the mobile marketing and advertising industry.

The investment is a landmark event for the mobile advertising and marketing industry, clearly establishing mobile as mainstream. It is particularly telling that investors have this level of confidence, not only in the industry as a whole, but also in an Asian company, one that has leveraged the power of global interest in mobile advertising to carve a niche for itself among major players in the industry.

The news is most welcome, as it establishes an Indian start-up in the mobile marketing space as a true global leader. InMobi has transformed into a multinational organization within a very short period of time, becoming a powerful player in the global mobile space. This is a reflection of the business acumen, innovation and creativity behind the company – and speaks volumes for the results that its operations in the mobile space have been able to achieve.

In addition, the collaboration with and interest from a leading investment house such as SoftBank clearly indicates the growth potential inherent in mobile as the next media. SoftBank’s investment also merges the boundaries within Asia, as this investment house from Japan, one of the world’s most developed mobile markets, partners with InMobi, a company that has spread its business from India, across both developed and developing markets. This will be a strong partnership indeed.

Hopefully, this announcement will act as a catalyst for change for traditional marketers and agencies. It will bring mobile to the forefront of marketing plans, used in conjunction with and perhaps even in place of traditional media channels in order to achieve marketing objectives. I have mentioned the power and potential of mobile before, particularly in Asia, and SoftBank’s willingness to capitalise on it is the truest testimony to that future growth.

The investment, one of the largest to date in the mobile internet space , will help InMobi create value across the mobile ecosystem globally through world-class advertising, mobile payments using SmartPay™, and HTML5 rich media production and distribution using the recently acquired Sprout™ platform.

In addition, this partnership will provide SoftBank and InMobi with opportunities to further explore global scale collaboration in the fast growing mobile ad market. Given the significant number of prominent Asian Internet companies in SoftBank’s investment portfolio, it is not unreasonable to expect to see further synergies emerge from the SoftBank/InMobi partnership.

MMA is really proud to have InMobi as our Premium Member, helping build and guide the industry. Things are looking up, and this recently-announced partnership is likely to be the first in a great many as mobile really starts to hit its stride, and exert its influence on the world stage.

As we approach the end of the year, it is awards season once more. 4A’s has just given out the Singapore Media Awards, the Festival of Media and Spikes Asia are both upcoming as I write this, and of course, nominations are now open for the global Mobile Marketing Association awards. This is actually a bit of a change from last year, as more of our industry awards include categories for digital and mobile campaigns. This development reflects the growing importance and awareness of non-traditional marketing.

I’ve said it before – awards are important. In a world obsessed with measurement and ROI, awards represent a way to consider something intangible. Sometimes, there isn’t a way to measure the factors that truly make a difference in marketing and advertising campaigns, and that is where awards can make the difference.

There is a certain amount of glitz and glamour associated with the awards ceremony itself, of course, and it gives everyone a chance to dress up and feel just a little bit special for one night. Winning an award brings with it a certain amount of prestige and industry recognition, too, something that can carry on after the awards night and help with procuring new business.

The more important function fulfilled by awards is that they unify the industry. Awards let each and every company within the industry to put their best foot forward, to showcase their very best work, and to hold it up for comparison with the best work that other companies have put forward. A panel of judges made up of industry peers ensures that the right comparisons are made. Industry awards judge work based on criteria other than the every day, not just in terms of ROI or conversion rate, but for how creative and innovative these campaigns are.

Creativity and innovation are traits that cannot be easily measured, and can only be seen by comparison with the other work done during the year. Side by side comparisons demonstrate conclusively which are the most creative, most original, and most special successful campaigns of the year.

Awards are also a good chance to see what one’s peers have been getting up to – and perhaps can provide inspiration for work in the year to come. Award winners often win because they have tried something different. Just knowing that some new technique is possible or some different practice attracts positive results can open up new possibilities. Learning from one another is perhaps the best, non-competitive way to benefit from awards, although winning is always better.

Amazon’s latest ebook reader is the talk of the town – not because of any new or superlative hardware features, but because the Kindle Cloud Reader replicates many of the functions of its standalone brother in the form of a HTML5 web app. The web app functions as a browser-based ebook reader, letting users access their Amazon accounts, download and read their ebooks.

The hot topic of tech industry conversations these days is HTML5. While HTML5 is far from being a fully-adopted standard, it holds great promise: to deliver rich content across any platform or device, and to convert any website into a fully-functioning web app. This ability is revolutionary, marrying the utility of an app with the ease of access of the web. This will particularly alter the mobile experience, since it extends the utility of mobile browsers, without the need to purchase additional apps.

Moving app-level functionality to the web browser may turn out to be HTML5’s most disruptive trait. Web apps like Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader challenge the app store economy pioneered by Apple, but that has now been adopted by Google in their Android Market (and by others). Prior to this, Apple imposed an across the board 30% fee for all purchases made through apps, adding to the cost of making content available to iOS users, and leading many other ebook providers (like Kobo) as well as magazine and newspaper publishers to cripple their apps, by removing purchasing functionality from their apps. This is somewhat ironic, given that Apple’s abandoning of Adobe Flash (in favour of HTML5) may be one of the reasons for HTML5’s rise.

HTML5 is nothing more than the latest version of Hypertext Markup Language, the basic grammar for laying out web pages so that they can be rendered by web browsers. A substantial update on the current standards, HTML5 will supercede not only the current version of HTML (HTML4) but also XHTML1 and DOM2HTML. HTML5 has been designed to be robust and powerful, providing built-in support for multimedia and rich content but remaining easily readable by human beings and consistently understood and interpreted across platforms.

The adoption of HTML5 will have major repercussions for the mobile web and application ecosystem. For a start, HTML5 will let users access a wide range of rich multimedia content without having to worry about compatibility issues. HTML5 also promises to bring more content to mobile browsers, changing the truncated mobile browsing experience into one that more closely resembles desktop browsing. This will be a particularly useful feature for users in Asia, many of whom use mobile browsing as their primary means of accessing the Internet. And as discussed earlier, HTML5 will reduce the influence of companies like Apple and Google, which take up to 30 percent of all revenues generated from applications.

Although HTML5 will become completely W3C compliant in 2022 (a feat that no other version of HTML has achieved), it is already a firm enough standard that Amazon is using it for a cloud-based ebook app. Mobile marketers, advertisers, brands and agencies are all watching HTML5 developments with great interest, because of the wide range of benefits that HTML5 may bring. Easier distribution of rich media content, for a start, as well as online gaming without the need for web app design, and a level of multimedia/animated content that eliminates the need for Silverlight or Flash implementations, plus being OS- and device-agnostic means that marketers using HTML5 have a wide range of options, and need only build once to achieve almost universal distribution.

Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen, as the renewed interest in HTML5 puts the standard under even greater scrutiny. Paradoxically, widespread adoption of HTML5 will only happen when it becomes used more widely, so it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Amazon’s big move may be the start of an avalanche, as users/consumers start to use and demand HTML5 functionality. The next few months should be very interesting, and if all goes well, you may be reading this blog’s entries in an all new HTML5 format – together with almost everything else on the web.

Today, we see the emergence of new and specialised mobile ad networks, in addition to several large ad networks that already serve more mainstream advertising solutions. As opposed to hosting the typical banner and text advertisements, these small networks offer innovative options such as video ads, voice ads, 3D ads, location-based services, augmented reality, Bluetooth technologies, and much more. Contrast this with large ad networks such as InMobi, Google AdMob, and Millennial Media that primarily serve banner and text advertisements, in addition to add-on features such as click-to-call, click-to-download, in-app sponsorships, etc.

While it is true that large networks enjoy a wider reach, their success is not necessarily a given.

One of the issues with being a large network is that it is difficult and challenging to introduce radical innovations to their system. Instead, it is easier to build on existing technologies (e.g. banner advertisements) with occasional incremental additions (e.g. inserting a click-to-call feature above the banner advertisement).

On the other hand, small networks are able to create new advertising solutions that attract more brands and agencies to integrate mobile as a medium into their marketing strategies, such as 3D ads that offer users a 360-degree view of products; augmented reality technologies that engage users in unprecedented ways; and location-based services that provide users coupon savings while driving foot traffic to retail stores. For them, innovation is important for their survival, rather than having a wide user base.

While innovation is a key driver of mobile advertising growth, some caution needs to be taken. An industry with too many specialisations may eventually be self-defeating for the players, because competition becomes stiffer and profit margins narrower.

In response to this situation, such diversity in the industry is instead more likely to lead to the establishment of partnerships between small and large networks, where they benefit from each other’s extensive user base and innovation. Also, if large networks cannot keep pace with the trends in the industry because they lack the research and development capacity, they are likely to seek innovation from third-party networks.

For example, we already see partnerships between Microsoft and Vdopia, and InMobi and Cooliris. Vdopia and Cooliris supply the bigger players their structures for video and 3D ads respectively. In the future, mergers and acquisitions may be more commonplace as large networks take steps to acquire the technological innovations of smaller ad networks.

This trend is likely to continue, eventually leading to consolidation within the mobile ad network industry, similar to the consolidation among online ad networks in the last 10 years. From the hundreds of ad networks that first emerged in the early 2000s, today the top five online networks rake in a whopping 67.7% of the total online ad revenues in the US: Google (40.8%), Yahoo! (11%), Facebook (7%), MSN (6.1%), and AOL (2.7%).

I predict that the mobile ad network industry will follow a similar trajectory, and eventually consolidate into several large joint networks that are capable of giving the various user experiences for mobile advertising. These can run the gamut from mainstream banner ads to specialised augmented reality, video ads, and location-based services. Hopefully, the consolidation will also translate into higher adoption of mobile ads, and better tracking and measurement tools as the industry matures.

Throughout the changes that we can expect to see within the industry, I am confident that innovation will continue to flourish. It is not inconceivable that one day, the most powerful mobile ad network will be able to combine all these technologies skillfully and seamlessly. And perhaps, this network is still out there waiting to be born.