Telegraph UK has a very speculative story about top European mobile operators (and Cingular) meeting at 3GSM in Barcelona later this month to discuss pooling their resources together to develop or back a search service to rival the online behemoths Google and Yahoo.
The story says Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and Cingular are among the companies that will come together for this secret, talks. Among the ideas to be discussed include backing an existing search engine and use their combined might to secure a majority slice of the income. Another idea up for discussion is the creation of a white label service, with a single advertising sales house and technical team, to which mobile networks could then apply their own brand, the story says.
This comes as Google and Yahoo have been steadily signing up operators, including the ones mentioned above, to power their mobile search services. We have covered operator unease in the past, as they worry about Google and Yahoo getting majority of the mobile search ad revenue split. These talks stem from that concern, though I would be surprised if anything ever comes out of this, mainly because of the complexities of working together and secondly because of tough EU anti-competitive regulations.
Peggy adds: The jury is out on whether a joint effort will actually materialize. However, the news of these meetings during 3GSM speaks volumes about growing operator dissatisfaction. Can they really do one better? Well, why not?! They wield the all-important analytics (including user profiles, preferences- the works) that are the foundation of any effective mobile search monetization strategy. What’s more, they can pick and choose among a growing number of white-label search providers who have quietly put together the indexes and capabilities to broker between operators and brands. [Medio Systems acquired Web Relevance, and JumpTap has tied up with mobile marketing companies to build inventory to offer its operator clients. Mobile Commerce, which already makes the match between key words and advertisers on behalf of mobile operators and search engines, has come up with a new twist. It caters to media companies, allowing them to operate a D2C AdWords-type scheme and bypass operators in the process.
In a word, the pressure is on for branded search engine companies to come up with a new value proposition. Their rivals are clearly lining up to monetize mobile search (and they don’t keep such a big chunk of the revenues, I hear). When it comes to making money on mobile search and targeted advertising, there is definitely a trend to DIY on the horizon. Media companies are going this way - why shouldn’t mobile operators also explore a more self-sufficient mobile search that gives them more command of the food chain.
Related:
-- Mobile Industry: Beware of Google?
-- Mobile Operators Can’t Go It Alone Any Longer
-- Vodafone Looking For Fast Exit From Google Mobile Search Partnership?