See It? Mobile Phone Internet Market Frontier

"Mobile phone usages surpasses personal computer ownership (80 percent) - but just 15.6 subscribers actively use mobile Internet services."

What a market opportunity for device technology, content generators . . . and advertising.

The pithy and insightful information continues from the recent J. P. Morgan Global Equity Research report:

"Not only have mobile phones been proven to be a vehicle of scale, they also have a broad reach across various demographic segments. Surprisingly, Nielsen data suggests that mobile Internet usage is prevalent across age groups.

"As of May 2008, the U.S. mobile Internet audience was about evenly split between those over the age of 35 (48%) and those under the age of 35 (52%).

"Reach is also found across genders and income levels. Nielsen data shows that 56% of mobile Internet users are male and 44% are female. And, while 24% of mobile Internet users have household incomes of $100,000 or more, 26% have a household
income of less than $50,000. We think this reach will broaden the medium’s appeal to advertisers."

"Although usage is less frequent than on personal computers, mobile Internet visits span a variety of verticals. According to Nielsen Mobile data, 40% of mobile Internet users find sites through search engines, 22% through direct navigation, 18% through their favorite links, and 17% from their carrier’s portal.

"Yahoo! Mail has the largest unique audience with 14 million unique monthly users in May, with Google Search and The Weather Channel coming in next with 9 million unique monthly users.

" . . . Probably the most recognizable of phones, the iPhone, increased awareness of mobile Internet capabilities. With a handset geared toward improving mobile Internet use, users significantly increased their use of mobile Internet services. Nielsen Mobile data shows that 82% of iPhone users access the mobile Internet, making them 5 times as likely to do so as the average mobile user.

Top Devices Amongst Mobile Internet Users
(% of mobile Internet users with device)

Motorola RAZR/RAZR2 10%
Apple iPhone 4%
RIM BlackBerry 8100 series (Pearl) 2%
RIM BlackBerry 8800 series 2%
Motorola Q Series 2%

Source: Nielsen Mobile data

Information Wealth, Targeted Growth

Inside the new J.P. Morgan Global Equity Research report Nothing But Net: Outlook for Global Internet Stocks is the prediction that the mostly performance-based U.S. search ad market will rise "10 percent in 2009 to nearly $16 billion. In contrast, display ads, which includes both performance and branded advertising, will grow only 6.3 percent to $8.4 billion this year."

"Yahoo! is particularly well positioned to provide targeted advertising to a network, in our view. As one of the top-ranked websites by unique visitors (according to comScore), Yahoo! has a wealth of information about visitor habits and preferences.

"We also think it will take time for generalized non-targeted inventory to catch up to the monetization of targeted premium inventory."

Online video ad growth is on the brink of healthy gains in 2009. But, unlike television, which still can count on advertisers to respond to CPMs (advertising bought on the basis of impressions), online video can't guarantee viewership for any specific video the way TV does. (Holding up growth are factors such as uneven quality and copyright issues.)

One model to watch is Google experiments with how to monetize YouTube videos. A viewer searches, then watches a favorite tune video, then can click on a link to buy that song or related product from Amazon or iTunes or others, with a percentage going to YouTube.

Get It? Got It? Good. Online Innovators

"I agree completely with my son James when he says the 'Internet is like electricity. The latter lights up everything, while the former lights up knowledge.'"

- Kerry Packer
Australian publishing, media and gaming tycoon


Just observe how people now easily use technology married to the Internet - on Christmas - to source an obscure holiday song from childhood to listen that tune once more. Or tell how they found their new dog (a rescue, on Petfinder.com). Or look at the results in the gifts - a personalized calendar, which involved photo uploads and customization online (yup, at WalMart's site). Finding exactly what is desired is becoming second nature.

Most people don't care how it works, they just want to find what they want. (Preferably at a discount when considering a purchase.)

Behind the engines of change that are transforming the globe are some pretty smart people. And powerful search engines.

Curiosity about online corporate leaders led to another kind of search. Most interesting businesses are powered by the people who create them.

Everyone has ideas. The majority of humans talk about them. Leaders work to link concepts to business models and then on to reality. First, try it out in the sandbox, and (in this case) on to growth. Today search engines put the global marketplace at our fingertips. (If you are terrier-like in your research.)

The evolution (think Charles Darwin was right) of business means learning all the time. Blogs (some) are the conversations about change.

So here's the first in a sometimes series about online innovators.

Founded as the first blog search engine, Technorati has grown up into a full-service media company. The online partnership introduces fresh content to millions of consumers, and indexes millions of blog posts in real time, then surfaces them in seconds.

The company is led by Richard Jalichandra, president and CEO, a veteran Internet executive whose media experience includes leadership roles across the media spectrum. He's been an M&A and strategy consultant for several Internet properties and investment firms, and also served as SVP of corporate development for exponential interactive, Tribal Fusion’s parent company. Previously, he was SVP of business development for Fox Interactive Media, and was the vice president of business & corporate development at IGN Entertainment (acquired by Fox Interactive), where he led the company’s M&A, business development and international activities. Before joining IGN, Richard led national accounts sales at Lycos, was vice president of business development at Neopost Online, served as senior vice president/managing director of Answerthink, and founded K23 Creative Services in Singapore. His early career included management roles for Ford, IBM and Siemens.

Now, where did the concept come from?

David Sifry, founder and chairman of the board, is a self-described "serial entrepreneur" - with more than 20 years of software development and industry experience.

Sifry co-founded and served as CTO of Sputnik, a Wi-Fi gateway company; was co-founder of Linuxcare, where he served as CTO and vice president of engineering. He also was a founding member of the board of Linux International and on the technical advisory board of the National Cybercrime Training Partnership for law enforcement.

His blog is as interesting as he is - called Sifry’s Alerts.

An excerpt -

"On-demand, Personalized Travel Books. Travel books that are tuned just for you, only about the place that you're going, with local information like festivals, events, and concerts that are going on during the dates of your stay. We put in local maps that are tuned to where you'll be, and we even customize the guide based on what we learn about you, like the timezone differences from your hometown, electrical plug differences, embassies and consulates nearby, differences in tipping policies, exchange rates, local weather forecasts, and much more.

"Can I customize it? Of course. You get full control over your guide - so if you already know where you're staying, you can click to deselect all of the information about hotels, for example. You can add customized chapters and fill them with information that you gather from your friends, or from around the internet. And when you're done, you can get your guide in multiple formats . . ."