PODCAST: MCN Chalks Up Another Asian Operator; Do More Mobile Search Results Make For More Revenues?
Mobile Content Networks (MCN), a U.S. mobile search platform provider that recently moved its HQ to Japan, is a pretty tough act to follow if you review its track record in Asia. Tomorrow, the company will formally announce its third customer win in Thailand: TrueMove, a mobile operator with 8.1 million subscribers on its nationwide 1800MHz network. That means MCN is now providing its mobile search platform to three (!) mobile operators there. [The other two are: DTAC, with 14 million subscribers (announced February 2007); and AIS, with 23 million subscribers (announced May 2007).] AIS also provides Google mobile search, a decision that speaks volumes about the make-up of a winning mobile search strategy.
Indeed, today’s announcement isn’t just a milestone for MCN; it’s a clear sign that the dynamics of mobile search are shifting in the favor of solutions that can deliver results from more than one mobile search engine. Put simply, we can forget the body count (that is, describing the market in terms of which operator has aligned with which search engine) and put to rest the assumption that the choice of mobile search engine is somehow a key differentiator.
The algorithm for success (pun intended) will be providing a choice of search engines, It’s all about allowing results to reflect the breadth and depth of results which an assortment of horizontal and vertical search engines can bubble up to the surface. Put another way, scenarios we know from the Internet will ultimately play out in the mobile Web. (For a taste of what is to come, check out the 1,000+ super-cool Internet search engines featured at AltSearchEngines, for example.)
More is better is a trend that plays in the favor of mobile metasearch and, more specifically, a mobile search platform that can manage the engines, keywords and mobile ad inventory to make it work on a large scale. Connect the dots and MCN is a name we’re likely to come across quite often – particularly in Asia where portal walls have long disappeared and mobile search usage exceeds expectation. In such buoyant markets providing more mobile search options can certainly pay dividends.
I spoke with Marc Bookman, MCN CEO, to get the inside track on the latest win, the state of the Asian mobile search space, and the tie-up with mobile ad networks in Japan in what MCN refers to as a federated ad network. Fortunately, Marc didn’t just agree to an interview; he treated me to a 1.5 hour discussion of mobile search issues, a detailed look at click-through stats and a preview (under embargo) of an exciting acquisition the company will keep under wraps until Wednesday. In line with this timetable I have split the podcast into two parts and will post part 2, which deep-dives into this latest deal, on Wednesday.
Listen to the podcast. [27:36]
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The Thai triangle: MCN’s MobileSearch.net platform is now at the core of three mobile search services. In the case of True, it sits at the center of its TrueLife Mobile Search service. Isn’t it all a little too close for comfort when three operators offer the same platform? Not if you take a closer look, Marc says. Operators all have their own content and their own models. “So, you roll that all together, you’ve got local content, you’ve got large branded portal content and search, and then you’ve got the carriers own content. What we can say to each of the carriers is: You can decide how to channelize, how to brand and how to deliver that content and those search results to users in a way that’s consistent with your business plan and business model…. MCN then plays the role in the value chain of being that management platform, and we’re not trying to compete [with] a branded competitive offering.”
Where it’s at(?!): Japan, of course. “We can say fairly confidently Japan is the only real mass market for mobile advertising today. You’ve got a very high penetration of the users who are using the mobile device; you’ve got large brands out there who are building cross-media campaigns … and there are anywhere from 30 to 40 mobile advertising-related companies [active] here.” Marc’s key message: “Japan is really a predictor of the future for what’s going on [in mobile search globally].”
Numbers to die for: “In Japan … we are seeing click through rates on commercial music content for example, averaging about 30-35 percent, sometimes peaking up to about 50 percent, depending on the content channel.” [Note: MCN offers a combined FM radio/mobile music and real-time mobile search service for NTT DoCoMo that delivers information and offers around the music users hear on the phone. Marc credits the service's "high level of targeting," which also encourages impulse music purchases. For standard text ads or banner ads, the rates are "all over the map." Banner ads that lack relevancy generally see click-through rates of "1-2- percent." In Japan, they tend to be "a little higher [and hit] 5-6 percent.”
Shop till you drop: In the case of MCN’s own mobile shopping app – which combines results from some 15 mobile shopping sites – click-through rates on “some of the text ads are in the 8-10 percent range.” It’s not rocket science. Highly targeted and relevant ads deliver high click-through rates. “[It's] in the 40-50 percent range for the really relevant, tightly matched commercial links that you can put on the page.”
Inventory overload?: Managing and delivering search results from multiple sources may make for a better end-user experience, but does it pit ad agencies against each other when key word searches overlap? Negative. “Any advertising company network is a good thing and MCN partners with them [all].” We intend, through the ad federation capability then, to build a service for our partners that allows them to specify the business rules very specifically for the advertising in each content channel. No matter the model, MCN wants to sit on the side of the brand. “We want to help them manage the advertising in a way that works for them and then we will connect to all the ad sources that are out there to help them get traffic through our network.”
So, what happens when ads collide? Marc provided me with new research that shows this is a non-issue. “Parties thought it was a zero-sum game, [and] that they were competing against each other. What we discovered, in fact, was that the overlap … problem was almost insignificant.” In a nutshell, the extreme targeting of ads to relevant key words and the “complex verticalization of the ad channels through specific key word categories,” removes one-size fits all queries and ads from the equation altogether.”What we believe is that if we can federate these networks together. That is much better for a brand that can take the coverage of their pages from the 20’s … way up into 80-90s, close to 100 percent. So it’s definitely not a zero-sum game. The bottom line: Don’t look for MCN to get in on the ad company land grab. “MCN does not have to be in the ad game. There are enough players doing this who have that expertise and we intend to partner with those companies.”
Multi-modal opportunities: For the record, MCN is interested in multi-modal search – and in partnering with companies for the necessary UI improvements to make mobile search work on these platforms and devices. MCN is already “doing some voice things in Japan,” but Marc left it at that. Another area to watch is barcode applications. “This is going to be very exciting and we think it’s going to be a way to expand the kind of searches users are doing as well as being very interesting in terms of the kind of metadata we can collect from the user without them having to enter it all themselves.”
Nuts & bolts: The podcast wouldn’t be complete without a full discussion of the MCN value prop and what we mean when we say it provides a real-time mobile search platform. Marc obliged and ran me through just how MCN has adapted the federated search approach we know from the enterprise to mobile content. “Of course, there are metasearch-like things that we have going on under the hood within our platform, but then – on top of that – you’ve got the workflow and the business rules that come into play and [make for] a real-time search management platform for mobility.” (Other articles and columns I have written deep-dive – and you can check them out in the Library.) Marc also shares some good reasons why MCN rejected the idea of thin client from the start.
But the real eye-opener was Marc’s view of transcoding. MCN doesn’t cover this and partners on the few occasions when users want to surf the depths of the Internet for results. Makes sense – or does it? Other mobile search providers argue the opposite. But read between the lines and Marc is not just commenting on users in Japan (who get their content from the mobile Web); he is telling us that users do not venture out on the wild Internet much at all. In fact, it’s viewed as a “search of last resort” for when users don’t find what they want in the made-for-mobile content they can already access on their phones. And what about the run on Internet names and the frenzy to get big names like MySpace on board? Maybe that’s where all this starts, but not where it will end. As the mobile Web comes into its own outside of Asia, we may finally see the emergence of truly mobile content companies and providers and not the usual line-up of names and offers that already dominate the Internet. The takeaway: Take a chance! Build new brands and offers that have their roots in the mobile Web. Don’t worry if it might be too much of a good thing. Choice in content – and in search results- is the flavor of the day.
