Disqus
According to the new Juniper Research’s report called “Mobile Search & Discovery: Opportunities and Markets 2008-2013″, nearly 1.3 billion mobile users — 30% of the subscriber base — will utilise local mobile search services by 2013.
The report argues that the best equipped regions for the delivery of mobile local search are currently Western Europe and North America, as all countries within these regions have good local digital information suppliers (yellow and white pages, city guides, restaurant and entertainment guides, traffic information, etc.) and also good mapping data with good coverage of points of interest.
Ad-supported local search will be the key to driving the sector, but Juniper cautions that the effectiveness of advertising will vary widely based on the local. The research company identified three key factors – availability and quality of local directories and content, presence of the necessary location based infrastructure, and the quality of the user experience.
Additional findings from the Juniper report include:
- Local search is expected to account for 43% of cumulative mobile search advertising revenues between 2008 and 2013, reaching total revenues of $4.8 billion by 2013.
- User response rates to advertising which supports mobile local search are expected to be significantly higher than for advertising on general mobile web search.
- Western Europe currently accounts for the greatest volume of mobile search enquiries, but that will soon change as they will be overtaken by the Far East and China region.
- The so called “advertising overload” might act as a disincentive to consumers and might ultimately limit adoption. Other factor to worry about is the continuing public concern over search engine usage of personal data, aka privacy.
More information is available on Juniper Research’s website.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
