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Yahoo To Show Search Ads On Mobile Devices In US, UK

By Riva Richmond, Dow Jones Newswires

Yahoo plans on Wednesday to begin showing keyword-based advertisements on mobile phones in the United States and the United Kingdom, in the Internet giant's first effort to establish a mobile-advertising business outside of Japan.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company will launch the "beta," or test, advertising programs for its Mobile Web service, which allows people to perform keyword Web searches on most mobile phones and handheld devices using Web browsers, starting with a select group of less than 100 advertisers, which Yahoo declined to identify.

As with the search-based ads Yahoo displays on Web pages on personal computers, Yahoo will charge advertisers each time a consumer clicks on the link shown in their ad at rates established by advertisers in online auctions. Yahoo said, so far, ad rates appear to be comparable to those seen for the PC, but in time could prove to be even more lucrative.

The mobile-advertising market is small and undeveloped today, but it is garnering increasing interest as more powerful, Web-enabled devices get into the hands of more consumers and as the devices become the primary way to access the Internet in some countries.

"There are hundreds of millions, if not billions, of consumers who have mobile phones," said Steve Boom, senior vice president of broadband and mobile at Yahoo. "Advertisers want to be where the consumer is."

The company's aim in launching the mobile-ad programs is to "further establish ourselves as a leader and start to earn some money off mobile services," he said.

Search competitors like Google have held tests of mobile advertising, but have yet to role out beta programs.

Under Yahoo's mobile program, consumers who see ads and click on a link to get more information will be routed to the mobile version of the advertiser's Web site, if it has one, or to a Yahoo-provided "landing page," if it does not. On the landing page, advertisers will be able to provide a phone number that consumers can click on to initiate a phone call. For now, advertisers will not pay for those calls. However, Yahoo said it plans to charge for them in the future and that adding that feature is a top priority on its development agenda.

Yahoo has been showing mobile search ads in a pilot program in Japan, perhaps the world's most advanced mobile-device market, for about two years. It has also been running more limited tests in the U.K. for about a year. Yahoo concluded it was time to introduce the format to the U.S. after the efforts in Japan and the U.K. began show improved traction in recent months.

"It's starting to produce revenue that is interesting to us as a company," Boom said.

Yahoo has found that mobile users are receptive to search ads because they are relevant and tend to enhance the user experience rather than detract from it. Boom said he expects that the medium will attract advertisers selling products and services that are interesting to people when they are on the go, such as restaurants and travel-related companies.

While mobile advertising is at a very early stage, advertisers are sold on the value of online advertising. As such, "I expect that the ramp will be much, much faster than it was on the PC," Boom said.

Yahoo is likely to introduce display advertising on mobile devices in the near term, he added.

Source: Cellular-news

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