These are my slides from the talk “Capturing Users” I delivered on 30 Nov 2013 at the most excellent StartUp Next conference in Sofia (Bulgaria). For those who were there: the “missing slide” is now included… 😉
Tag: mobile marketing Page 1 of 6
Over everything else that’s been going on today (my resignation from BlackBerry only putting one of the smaller cats amongst my own pidgeons), I nearly missed a rather remarkable deal: Twitter is buying MoPub for – according to unconfirmed sources – $350m in stock. Not too shabby, huh?
Why’s that then? Well, we have all been following Twitter’s attempts to turn its growing user base into dollars for (arguably) too long. Their previous (and current) initiatives may have gained somewhat over previous attempts but they still do not really stack up in terms of revenue to what their powerful network (which has famously made regimes tumble down) would suggest it could do.
They have been looking for an ad exchange for a while (the signs were on the wall then) and MoPub looks like a good fit: they are a truly “mobile first” company as was, arguably, Twitter (they have had more mobile usage from Day 1 than most other networks). They run a real-time ad-exchange, meaning the offer of an open space is being created the moment a page loads, an app opens, something happens – in real time (check here for a better explanation). It is basically like Google AdWords for mobile, with the nifty variation that they couple all sorts of mobile inventory and sources into one output. Rather sweet. This of course makes even more sense for Twitter than it might for some other folks as Twitter is “changing” by the second depending on waves of popularity – and, as I said before, a lot of it is on mobile – and it will be more still in the future. So this dynamic nature coupled with the mobile-centric view of MoPub will, I suspect, have been the part that made Twitter part with that much of their stock.
As to this being an all-stock deal (if what TC reports is true): Twitter is probably one of the better pre-IPO stock to hold, I suppose… 😉
Here’s something cool, a mobile accelerator run by people who actually know mobile, namely the good folks from Mobile Monday (disclosure: I am a co-founder of Mobile Monday Manchester). For those who don’t know (and I don’t expect many of the readers of this blog to being that ignorant… 😉 ): Mobile Monday has a global presence in over 140 cities across 50 different countries. As part of Mobile Monday, participants will get greater global exposure with leading brands to help foster business relationships and potentially commercial deals. It works, believe me!
This is a 12-week program (from 23 September – 6 December), run at RocketSpace in Silicon Valley with the aim to help accelerate mobile startups. They will select 8-10 startups from around the globe to participate in each class. If you are not based in the Bay Area, you’d have to cover your own housing and living though (which they say should amount to $2,500/month; also: you need to sort out your own visa should you need one though they’ll help you).
The program is designed for startup founders. It consists of weekly workshops and dinners lead by leaders of “global brands” who will help mentor and work closely with participating companies. You will have the opportunity to pitch their “dedicated” team of VCs and angels. The program will end with a Demo Day attended by industry leaders, VCs, and the press. So it’s pretty much the usual stuff. However, it being run by the MoMo folks, you can probably expect a rather good pick from the mobile world!
Here are the minimum criteria (and you will see from this that you actually have to have something already; this is an accelerator, not an incubator):
- At least 2 people in the startup (two’s company…);
- Shipping live product;
- Angel funding or Participation of a startup program or Experience as a founder in a prior startup;
- Pre-series A funding.
Each application will be scored on five criteria:
- Team
- Product
- Market viability
- Traction (clients, users, customers)
- Fit for mobile industry
All Mobile Monday Accelerator events will be held in the San Francisco bay area. Office space at the RocketSpace Innovation Campus (San Francisco downtown) is provided free to all accelerator class participants. RocketSpace is home to Fortune 500s like, T-Mobile, GM, DoCoMo, Microsoft, ABInBev, LEGO and to 150+ startups including Spotify, Supercell and HasOffers (yup, that is straight from their sales pitch).
The program currently provides 50+ of the best in mobile mentors; Samsung, Sony, Twitter, Facebook, AOL, ESPN, Polariod, PayPal, Intuit, The Weather Channel, Hotel Tonight, Millenial Media and more… (yup, again from their pitch)
Each week, they’ll host a workshop in the San Francisco bay area at our offices or a partner’s office on the usual topics like:
- Marketing
- Negotiation
- Monetization
- Legal
- Analytics and Tracking (if you still haven’t got this)
- UI/UX Best Practices
- Scaling (under the heading “luxury problems” but immensely important)
- Selling to the Enterprise
- M&A How to sell your startup (my guess is they won’t give guarantees though…)
- Effective Pitching
If you want to get into this (and, hey, it is just about the time when the weather in certain areas get somewhat yucky), you can apply here. Good luck!
This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists comes to you from Kansas, more specifically from Steven Hoober, and here’s what he has in stock for you:
- Will larger screens lead to poorer mobile web sites?
- Do apps beat browsing?
- What will be the best mobile advertising networks 2012?
- Do QR codes work? Someone had a look at TfL’s (better known as the operator of the London Tube) numbers.
- What can advertisers expect from the Kindle Fire?
- Would you close your business for two days per week? A look at retailers and the benefits of mobile-optimized websites.
- Will Windows Phone 7 be cutting it?
- Android and Apple have not won the smartphone war.
- Have you ever heard of a “wearable computing equation”? Check it out!
- What is the spectrum/bandwith crunch in Boise, Idaho?
- My little piece on the revolutionary (well, perhaps, “only” disruptive) French operator Free.
- Image processing in Generation M
The carnival is live here. Go read! 🙂
A new year, a new carnival (which will returned to weekly editions now, too). This week’s edition is hosted by Mark Bridges over at thefonecast.com, and he includes posts, such as:
- Lots of reminiscing on the past year (on mobile marketing, the greater scope of the mobile landscape and – albeit in Spanish – a reminder of a joke from all the way back in 2004 when someone suggested in April Fools’ fashion that Apple – hold your breath – might launch a phone bypassing traditional network operators).
- Of course some predictions (general ones as well as a look on where mobile development specifically might go) and Tomi Ahonen’s latest on why all roads lead to Mobile (as in tech, not as in Alabama).
- A couple of posts on what might or might not happen to WebOS following HP’s open-sourcing announcement (comparisons to Symbian’s fate included).
- More on dying platforms with a piece on mobile flash.
- Ad performance benchmarking (Admob vs mobfox).
- A call to prepare for the (presumed) ascent of the Kindle Fire.
- And, finally, a nod to my two posts on Angry Birds and my take on the dubious assertion that “social lost its sizzle“.
The carnival is here! Go, read it! 🙂 And if you’re a blogger wanting to participate, head over to the Carnival’s revamped homepage where you will find everything you need to know about submitting entries and even hosting one on your own blog if you are so inclined.
Things heat up, and not only because I am traveling South this week, more specifically to Dubai where, on Tuesday (1st), the Mindshare Media Summit 2011 will open its doors. It carries a heavy focus on marketing and media in a multi-screen world where screens and user experiences converge. The organizers have a great line-up of speakers, including:
- AKQA
- Nissan
- HSBC
- BBC Worldwide
- Yahoo!
- The MBC Group
- (of course) Mindshare
- The Arabian Radio Network
- and many more (including yours truly).
So if you would like to hook up in one of the most vibrant regions in the world, in one of the swankier settings and soak up some sun before the winter (if you live in the Northern hemisphere, that is), come by! 🙂
Only two weeks or so, and we’ll be off. One of the most exciting (well, correct that: the most exciting) mobile events of the year will kick off, namely MLOVE. Hosted in a proper medieval German castle, it boasts an incredible line-up of holistic mobile thinkers and tinkerers and all the ingredients to “change your life” (quote some of the participants of previous iterations!).
So here’s the speaker line-up:
- Grammy-winning musician and multi-platform entrepreneur Chamillionaire;
- Yuri van Geest, the man behind Trend8;
- Thomas Goetz, Executive Editor of Wired (!);
- Russell Buckley, employee #1 at AdMob (and a ton of other things!);
- Kei Shimada, one of Japan’s premier wireless ambassadors;
- Jason Collins, Alcatel-Lucent’s VP of Emerging Technology and Innovation (and one of those awesome uber-smart people);
- Daniel Graf of Google’s Mobile Apps Labs fame;
- Jean Schmitt, one of France’s smartest investors (and with JolTech and powerhouse Sofinnova);
- Rovio’s Mighty Eagle, Peter Vesterbacka (how angry can your bird get?);
- Thorsten Dirks, CEO of E-Plus
- Beverly Jackson, the Director Marketing & Social Media of the Grammy Awards;
- plus leaders from Volkswagen, OgilvyOne, leaders in education, philosphers, bloggers, the CEO of Butterfly Corp, Dentsu (Japan’s #1 ad agency), Contagious and the indomitable Corvida Raven (of SheGeeks) and Jonathan MacDonald (of This Fluid World), composers, DJs, and, last but not least Adele Waugaman, the UN Foundation’s Sr. Director for their Technology Partnership.
We will also run a Teen Camp for the generation that really matters, which is run in conjunction with the Hasso Plattner (he of SAP fame) Institute, which I have the great honour to co-curate together with 16-year-old Tony Neidhardt (who – despite her tender age – is already a veteran in the scene!) and Jane Mason.
In one (well, few) word(s): it will be absolutely awesome!
If you feel inclined to join (and you really, really, really should!!!), check in here.