Yesterday morning, my dad forwarded my mom a chain-mail with an year-old article on mobile trends, which my mom forwarded to me with this email:
- If we’re talking about mobile web browsers, Flash doesn’t even work. (Websites for mobile browsers are just stripped down versions of regular websites though.) If we’re talking about mobile apps, I wouldn’t know but I heard the iPhone SDK is fairly easy to learn (for coders, at least). If I wanted to learn how graphics/multimedia worked for apps, I could easily ask one of 10293824 friends who builds iPhone apps for fun.
- Still debating; would rather stay in the Bay though. (I don’t think tech anywhere else beats tech here in the Bay Area—err, unless we’re talking about Japan’s mobile technologies. Nothing beats our social media craze and database of iPhone apps though.)
I spent some time translating the outdated article anyway, so here it is:
手機廣告終於起飛，全球成長3倍！
Mobile advertising finally takes off, tripling growth globally!
行銷業過去常常表示，行動電話廣告正在興起，但這次他們可能是對的。行動廣告業龍頭AdMob表示，過去12個月裡，它們在全球發送的廣告成長達3倍。主要原因在於，很多行動廣告的阻礙都消失了。
Marketers in the past constantly say that mobile advertising is on the rise, but they might be right this time. Mobile advertising giant, AdMob, has tripled their company globally these past twelve months, since many roadblocks for mobile advertising have disappeared.
硬體是其中之一。許多年來，手機上網非常麻煩，螢幕太小且操作不易。但新一代的智慧電話，例如iPhone、Google的G1和黑莓機已經解決了這個問題，它們擁有夠大的觸碰式螢幕，可以完整的呈現網頁和廣告。
Hardware is only one aspect. For many years, it was really difficult to go online via a cell phone, because screens were too small and interfaces were difficult to use. Now, those problems no longer exist; we have a new generation of smart phones such as the iPhone, Google’s G1, and Blackberry phones, which have large enough touch screens to display webpages and advertisements effectively.
網路速度提升，費率下降也有幫助。下載廣告的時間長，而且還得付費，很難讓人對廣告裡的產品留下好印象。速度提升，加上「上到飽」的付費方案，使行動服務和應用更受歡迎，也更能靠廣告資金來營運。
Internet speeds have increased while fees have decreased, which also helps. [In the past], downloading ads took a while and you had to pay a fee, which left users a bad impression of what was actually advertised. With faster [internet] speed and “pay as you go” plans, mobile services and applications are becoming more popular, so companies can continue to operate with advertising revenue.
最重要因素，也許是行銷業者開始找出何種廣告方式最適合手機。新成立的公司Amobee，讓客戶可以在手機遊戲等其他軟體中放入廣告。
The most important factor is, perhaps the sales industry is also looking for the most suitable mobile advertising platforms out there. The new startup, Amobee, lets clients [advertisers] display ads in the middle of mobile games and other software.
另一個方式，則是提供服務來吸引注意。行動業者Blyk，也對16到24歲的用戶提供每個月217封免費訊息和43分鐘的通話，條件則是每天收6封廣告。方案在英國推出1年後，用戶達20萬人，是Blyk目標的兩倍。
Another method is to offer services to attract attention. Mobile company, Blyk, provides 16-24 year-olds 217 free [characters for?] text messages and 43 free minutes every month, the catch being that users receive 6 ads per day. After using this strategy for a year in the UK, the company reached 200k users, which was twice their original goal.
還有一個方式，就是整合行動服務和真實世界裡的事件。行動行銷仲介Phonevally，在今年夏天推出了一項服務，讓朋友間可以在他們支持的足球隊得分時，進行電話會議，這項服務則是由運動用品商Puma贊助。
There’s yet another method, which is to combine mobile services with realtime events. Mobile marketing company, Phonevally (pretty sure they meant Phonevalley…), came out with a new service this summer, which lets friends conference call when their favorite soccer team scores. This service is sponsored by the sports brand, Puma.
行動廣告和社交網站一樣，有風險但也充滿機會。風險在於它會出現在非常私人的情境之中，可能會讓人有被侵犯的感覺，但這也是它吸引廣告商的地方──前提是廣告商必須展現同理心。
Mobile advertising is like social networking, it’s dangerous yet full of opportunities. The risk lies in that they [ads] appear in very personal settings [on a user's personal phone], which could make the user feel violated, but this also attracts the advertising market—the prerequisite is that these ad companies must be sensitive to people’s needs.
(original source here)
I remember having a discussion about Asian mobile technologies in my Haas marketing class a while ago. The lure is, China has 1.3 billion people, 20% of the world’s population. (New York City has what, 8 million people? Shanghai has 20 million.) One out of every five people is Chinese—yet not every Chinese person can afford his/her own personal computer. However, many Chinese do carry around cellphones, and that’s why everyone wants to tap the Chinese mobile industry. (I was in Taiwan all summer, and my phone bill was something like $8/month with some first-time registration discount. Still ridiculously cheap for a basic plan with no internet. Taiwan’s standard of living is also much higher than that of China’s.)
Apparently, mobile advertising is completely insane in Asia. Our professor said that in Japan, once you walked near a restaurant, you’d receive a coupon via SMS right away. (That’s obviously a complete invasion of one’s privacy. Imagine walking along a strip mall, lol. And you thought voluntarily notifying others of your location on foursquare was bad.) On the other hand, Japan also has some pretty cool mobile technologies, such as purchasing vending machine drinks via one’s phone—we’re finally catching up with the Starbucks Card Mobile app, sort of. Here, we just have innocuous ads embedded in free apps, which we can get rid of if we buy the premium versions of the apps—not bad, not invasive, not even that noticeable. In Taiwan, I constantly received ads via texts at odd hours, which got pretty annoying after just a week. Blatant text spamming would never fly in the US—but I guess it’s lucrative in Asia (although do consider the last line in that article: be sensitive!).
When in doubt, think like Americans (heh). Smartphones are inevitable. How many desktop users do you know who still don’t have laptops by now? None? How many people will be without smartphones five? ten? years from now? None? If mobile advertising is getting out of hand, “hide” the ads in applications like we do and stop spamming people with texts! The iPhone didn’t seem that popular in Taiwan while I was there (it also costs 3x more…); but then again, Taiwanese people aren’t very Apple-friendly in general and youngsters aren’t as obsessed with tweeting and facebooking 24/7. However, my boss had some HTC smartphone, which seemed equally powerful. Taiwan is only a tiny island; China, on the other hand, is not. China has produced clones like iiPhones, iPhons, TPhones, liPhones, EPhones, and many more…they know what’s up. Asians really like Sony Ericsson, Nokia, HTC and Samsung smartphones, in my opinion. (I traveled to six major Asian cities this summer, although I’m sure a simple Google search would reveal some actual stats. Hmm, CNET Asia says people really like the Sony Aino.)
Since my parents have apparently invested 15k in some Taiwanese mobile tech company, I might as well pimp the company, right?! From my limited understanding, 行動 104 creates software applications for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Nokia’s S60 platform, and Sony Ericsson’s (and Motorola’s?) UIQ platform. According to them, this accounts for 65% of the Taiwanese mobile market. (This makes sense since I said the iPhone wasn’t popular in Taiwan.) Some of their paid apps include GPS maps to train timetables to zodiac constellations fortunetellers…while free apps include sudoku, iChing divination, and the Bible…I have no clue.
My only major concern is, why are they focusing on Windows Mobile?! (Read their blog.) Perhaps the market is different in Taiwan, but usually the US market is a pretty good indicator for the rest of the world (particularly since Microsoft is an American company…). Microsoft’s mobile marketshare keeps dropping (here are some pie-charts). Palm doesn’t like Windows Mobile anymore and neither does Acer. Good luck. Project Pink sounds ambitious, but I haven’t heard much about its promise—a comeback seems unlikely, in my opinion.
I guess if HTC smartphones remain popular in Asia, Windows Mobile will be okay, but HTC is also warming up to Google’s Android. The T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) uses Android, obviously. If HTC decides to shift all of their future products to Android only, I think Windows Mobile (and this company my parents just invested in) will be screwed, lol. The brand-new Droid just came out two days ago, and it’s already Dave Winer’s favorite phone. Uh-oh. (Honestly, no one should compete with Google anymore. The end.)
(I missed the bottom line…the bottom line is, Taiwan is a small island, China is not! …so figure out what the Chinese like. They seem to know how to copy Americans very well. Americans love Microsoft…but not IE, not Outlook, and not Windows Mobile. Americans love Google products though. If the Android OS really is like old-school Microsoft according to Scobleizer…行動 104 should shift towards the Android without too much difficulty.)
My last 2 cents, Taiwanese companies should also consider building Facebook apps, because I see that catching on even faster than smartphones. In the entire Living 3.0 office, my boss was the only other person with a smartphone. However, I convinced everyone else to create a Facebook account, and somehow, they all got addicted to ELEX’s 開心農場 on their own. (The game is a ripoff of Zynga’s FarmVille, the #1 game on Facebook right now.) The younger Taiwanese consumers probably can’t all afford smartphones just yet, but they sure play a lot of social games. Taiwanese people are also extremely viral. One of my past colleagues “liked” someone’s note, so it appeared in my NewsFeed. The person who posted the note had only 320 Facebook friends, but that one note on a divorce story(?!) received 114,484 likes and 29,641 comments (within one month). WHAT THE HECK?! (I’m sure Zuckerberg’s own Facebook doesn’t even get that much attention!) I thought some spammer (or multiple spammers) had gone through and ruined her note, but no, they are all authentic comments. (I’d hate to receive nearly 1,000 email notifications per day (42 per hour), LOL.)
As if that weren’t convincing enough, I am Facebook friends with four uncles, one aunt, even one great-aunt—all residing in Taiwan. (What, your parents are on Facebook? Well, so are mine, but so are my Taiwanese relatives—some twice-removed.)
Addendum
Apparently, reports of Window’s Mobile’s death are greatly exaggerated and I also failed to catch one MAJOR DETAIL, HTC is Taiwanese, which means they will always remain popular in Taiwan (which also explains why I thought I saw so many HTC phones in Taiwan, LOL). D’oh.
The author of the crazy popular Facebook note is “anonymous”.
There’s a “Quick Compose” for Twitterlike updates, a stream of “Recent Activity” including friend’s upates, important links under “Manage my Blog” in the top right corner with a simple graph of my stats, a bookmarklet, and an extremely long and unmemorable private email address. (I like how I can just email Twitter@Posterous.com…so easy! I don’t want to both copy/pasting/saving c1b3d…@typepad.com.)
After I click “Find out more…” I get:
which doesn’t even show me any of their content.
It’s very…FriendFeedy.
very traditional textbox/compose screen, no specific photo/audio/video uploading screens like those on Tumblr…you have to insert/embed via the tiny media buttons which auto-format the html. This can get annoying if all I want to post is media and no text. Cool feature: I can add Technorati tags (separate from keywords), although I might just end up copy/pasting from keywords to tags, which can also get annoying after a while. I guess this makes the service feel more…traditional than “micro” and simplified. [edit] I can add photo and video via the “Quick Compose”, but that’s about it.
Under settings, there’s built in SEO for entering in meta data, I can enter in my Google Analytics UA identification under “stats”, and I can import a blog from TypePad, Moveable Type, or Wordpress.