The mobile web has always held a great deal of promise, but until recently there hasn’t really been a significant technological investment in consumer properties and services that address its challenges and take advantage of its unique capabilities. Meanwhile, we all know that when serious engineering has been applied to many of the critical problems on the internet, incredible value has been created. Personally, I think it’s about time for some serious engineering on the mobile web.
When we take a look at some of our largest publishers, an interesting trend emerges. The vast majority have been either founded or co-founded by an engineer and it’s clear that they are thinking about their businesses as an engineering problem first and foremost. This is a critical and healthy shift. Until now, mobile has always been a relationship business rather than a technology business. Whoever could get their product or service on to a carrier deck or pre-installed on a handset would be the victor, and everyone else would slowly wither away with no available distribution. As the mobile web has opened up (and it still has a long way to go) distribution decisions are now be made by users, rather than large corporations, and the benefits are significant. Rather than needing to focus on business development and relationships, new startups are able to spend their time on their product and their technology, focusing almost all of their energy on innovation.
This shift is fundamental, and I’m not sure enough people are paying attention. I cannot tell you how many conferences or meetings I go to where the people I speak with are still exhibiting “old mobile” thinking, and telling me about who they know, rather than what they know. The open mobile web is no longer going to be an oligarchy controlled by the few. Winners and losers are going to be decided by the users, and in the long run users will decide in favor of killer products and incredible technology, just like they always have.
At AdMob we’ve taken this to heart from the beginning. I myself am an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by practice. We are a technology company first and foremost. Of the 62 people who work at AdMob, over half are engineers and 5 have PhD’s from top programs around the country. We’re applying this combined knowledge and expertise to the most significant problems that face mobile monetization and the mobile web in general. Our statistical modeling and optimization efforts have already yielded well above a 30% improvement over baseline eCPM across our network. Our significant investments in user, device, and carrier detection have provided critical insight both for our efforts as well as the efforts of our partners. And our early work in the areas of contextual and behavioral targeting are showing some very promising results. Over the next quarter we will begin to release a significant set of product enhancements and entirely new services that will leverage the experience and technological capability we’ve been developing over the past two years.
Our announcement of AdMob Mobile Analytics yesterday is a real world example of how we will be able to use the technology assets we’ve built to tackle some new and interesting problems in the mobile space. You can expect to hear much more from us on this product as well as others we have in the works.
Of course, we’re firm believers in the fact that it is one thing to say you are an engineering organization, and another thing entirely to actually be one. That is a claim that has to be tested and verified by users, partners, and customers. It has to be proven by both large innovations and attention to small details. In short, it has to be earned. We plan to earn it.
- Omar