Growing mobile use, and the lack of monetization of mobile users were highlighted in the Risk Factors section of Facebook’s IPO filing. Essentially, it could harm Facebook’s business if too many of its users spend too much time accessing Facebook from mobile devices without being properly monetized.

That’s why you’ll likely start seeing sponsored stories in your mobile news feed, and will probably eventually see more mobile ads. That is likely also why this deal with Bango has been made.

The press release is short and sweet so here it is in its entirety:

Bango has signed an agreement to provide payment services to Facebook.

Bango’s board believes it is too early in the relationship to accurately forecast the level of business which it may generate.

It’s hard to say just what all uses for Bango Facebook will find, given Facebook’s increasing integration with the web at large, but app payment is an obvious use.

The organization that many people see as Google’s top competitor in the mobile space didn’t fare nearly as well.  Bango explained in an official statement, "In comparison the volume of growth from Apple devices was just 13% over the same period, representing an actual percentage market share decline of 16%."

Those details seem sure to cause a few people in Cupertino to direct curses at Mountain View.

The BlackBerry platform managed to beat both Android and iOS in terms of users’ Web browsing, however, and so both Google and Apple may still have some work to do when it comes to attracting advertisers.

Ray Anderson, the CEO of Bango, noted, "Even with the advent of Apple’s new iAd platform and Google’s acquisition of AdMob, BlackBerry still represents the best volume opportunity for mobile advertising in the USA."

Anyway, it looks like much of Android’s growth occurred thanks to smartphones created by HTC, and in the overall mobile devices market, Sony Ericsson, LG, Motorola, and Samsung also increased their market shares.

The company says the good news for content providers is that the growth in traffic is being matched by the growth in users paying for content on the mobile Web.

"With 245 million subscribers, it was only a matter of time before the US became the number 1 country in the world for mobile web browsing," said Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing at Bango.

"When it comes to payments though, the US is accelerating faster than any other country and now accounts for 57% of payments worldwide."

Bango says the publicity behind the Apple iPhone has influenced more people to browse the mobile Web in countries such as the U.S. and the UK. Some businesses have been taken by surprise by mobile browsing as they lack mobile Web sites.

"Many people simply have no idea that they have visitors from mobile devices accessing their PC website- these mobile visitors are simply invisible to them," said Malhortra. "Part of the problem is lack of awareness."

The February statistics identified mobile Web browsers from a total of 208 different countries using 1,811 different handsets.
 

Continued adoption of Internet-capable mobile devices encouraged companies of all sizes to try and find ways to monetize such browsing with effective advertising methods. Advertisers, naturally, want to measure how well they are doing in reaching the mobile browsing person.

Mobile analytics firm Bango said they provide the kind of information needed for advertisers to make the best judgment calls for their marketing. Through the Bango Analytics platform, advertisers see site as well as campaign details. Originally, Bango offered tracking of links for campaign assessment.

The new site analysis feature shows unique visitor numbers from mobiles. Accomplishing this kind of tracking for assessment required generation of a unique Bango user ID per visitor; the company said their IDs have privacy protection, and lets the service distinguish between new and repeat visitors to a mobile site.

Site analysis also shows the all-important conversion rate for mobile marketing campaigns. Bango said a survey it commissioned of mobile website operators found visitor counts and conversion rates the top two items site operators want.

In March 2008, research firm Gartner projected mobile advertising revenue to reach $2.7 billion. By the end of 2011, they expect the figure to reach $12.8 billion and beyond.

More mobile devices in the world, with the ability to access the web for normal and multimedia content, represents the growth opportunity for digital advertising. Millions of people globally carry powerful phones, and web access, in their pockets every day.

People who can tap these advanced services will do so, and become a demographic unto themselves. For an advertiser, quality analytics makes the difference in how well they reach and retain customers.

Bango opened its hosted Analytics service for mobile website owners, who can use it free of charge. The company claimed the service provides detailed information on mobile visitors, without revealing any personal data.

A Bango representative we contacted about the ability of the service to determine mobile information said they can provide quite a bit to advertisers. A slowed-down snapshot demo of real-time data shows users, devices, networks, phone countries, and website countries.

The Bango rep also said the analytics knows the device and operating system versions; advertisers engaged in mobile commerce can tell if the visitor has previously made a purchase with the business.

For marketers, the real test will be meeting and beating Google AdWords and its reporting. Bango said their analytics will show not just the details mentioned earlier, but popularity of content, the search terms that give the best results, and total ROI from an ad campaign.

]]> http://www.webpronews.com/bango-analyzes-the-mobile-world-2008-02/feed 0