Home: News & Events – Press releases – Doing battle with Google

The excitement around mobile search, as well the technologies and techniques that target individual users with relevant advertising based on their search queries, personal preferences and purchasing patterns, point to the next “Big Thing.” At first glance, the list of usual suspects, which includes major mobile operators as well as search engine giants such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, appears to have sewn up mobile search and monetization. But don’t bet on it. Clever media brands coming out of stealth mode such as Norway’s Schibsted are combining their content, audience and advertising prowess to give competitors a run for their money.

 
Can media companies become mobile Web destinations in their own right and successfully compete with major search engines for a bigger slice of the advertising pie? It’s a strategy that paid dividends for Schibsted Søk, a Norwegian publishing company and mobilePeople customer that has made the transition from newspaper firm to Web 2.0 mobile search and digital media giant. The company, which chalked up €1.2 billion sales in 2005, reports digital content sales accounted for a whopping 35% of operating profits.

More importantly, Schibsted has become the first media company to take charge of its mobile content business and transform its phenomenally successful mobile portal presence into a mobile search service that rivals Google in Norway. Sesam, Schibsted’s combination mobile content portal and mobile search service, counts 30,000 searches a day and helps 150,000 users a month.


Building on this momentum, Schibsted is creating its own ad network to monetize its audience and deliver targeted and relevant advertising to users’ mobile phones. "A big part of Google’s success is based on its position as a hub for advertising," observes Bjorn Tveiten, Head of Mobile Search at Schibsted Søk. However, Google’s approach remains "rather one-dimensional" because it has filed to add user context to the equation. "Our approach makes mobile advertising three-dimensional: we can deliver marketing that is targeted to the location, complementary to the user’s profile and preferences, and perfectly linked to keywords and the user’s search queries."

Advertising offensive

Schibsted has come a long way in a short time. What first started out as a plan to monetize keywords in vertical search categories such as adult a few months ago, has since evolved into a full-scale strategy to monetize mobile search across all topics and all user segments. "When advertisers and service providers saw what we achieved by having sponsored links on our portal they came to use and asked to get involved," Tveiten recalls.

The result is a system Schibsted aptly calls Top 3 Placement because it manages the top three ads presented with search results. The system, which is operated by mobilePeople, allows advertisers to bid for the top-notch spot in results and tailors the presentation to the individual user’s mobile device. What’s more, the system fully integrates with Schibsted’s ad serving network, based on technology provided by mobilePeople’s partner Fast Search & Transfer.

"mobilePeople’s technology is the lynchpin that allows us to customize and personalize the ads we deliver to the keywords we receive," Tveiten explains. "Their contribution allows us to display the right ad – in the right format – on the user’s phone. They also interface with the billing systems to allow us to collect the analytics and divide the revenues with publishers and content providers."

In the next phase, Schibsted will work more closely with mobilePeople to create a suite of services that will make it possible for companies without a mobile Web presence to have a WAP landing page and a compelling advertising pitch. "Growing the number of companies that can participate grows the inventory we can monetize and the advertising ecosystem we can support through our ability to deliver to deliver contextual search results," Tveiten adds. "Building the community is a very important aspect of growing the revenues for everyone up and down the value chain."

Positive impression

To date Schibsted counts just over 25 advertisers, but all signs point to a tenfold growth in that number over the next months. It has developed a PPC system, powered in part by its own technology, and laid the groundwork to display graphical ads and more dynamic results.

With some additional customization from mobilePeople Schibsted wants to grow the categories it can search and the results it can deliver. To date Schibsted searches a wide variety of content sources including Wikipedia, news, image search, mobile internet and directory listings.

Schibsted will also grow its overall offering with the introduction of a Java client later in the year. The client software, developed by mobilePeople, will be central to the company’s on-device portal presence and strategy and provide another touchpoint between advertisers and consumers. Moving forward, the companies are "discussing banner placement on the Java client and incentives for users to download the client," Tveiten says. "It’s all about growing our audience and enhancing advertiser interest in our service. And with partners like mobilePeople we can do both."