Facebook recently announced a change in its settings that enables users to self-report their gender by using about 50 different classifications. It’s the social giant’s latest move that serves both users and advertisers alike, and it represents a striking reflection of what scale means at Facebook. To understand this, I want you to re-imagine Facebook’s […]

Last week, the team behind the retail platform PowaTAG invited me to speak at its public launch. (You can learn all about the technology in this brief video.) Available today for iPhone and Android devices and coming soon for Windows Phone and Nokia X, the PowaTAG app works by looking or listening for proprietary video […]

Sebastian Junger used the term “The Perfect Storm” in his eponymous book to describe the confluence of several really powerful meteorological forces that produced the mother of all storms. Having just returned from Mobile World Congress, or MWC, I can attest to how apropos the expression is in describing the mobile industry’s largest annual conference in Barcelona. In […]

$19 billion? The stunned reactions at Facebook’s valuation of mobile messaging service WhatsApp that are reverberating through tech hubs all over the world remind me of so much coverage of off-season baseball free agency. “How can Player X really get $15 million per year? He’s won just a few more games than he’s lost!” “Why […]

Have you or your company created a mobile app that’s so good that you can explain it to a total stranger in 30 seconds or less? If you have created such an app, have you actually explained it yet? Getting the word out about your app is one of the most fundamental yet overlooked mobile […]

If your company operates physical stores, you face all sorts of challenges. In addition to the same ones facing anyone in the real estate business, you also must confront the threat and opportunity presented by mobile devices. That means you must: Set a pricing strategy in an era dominated by customers using your floor inventory […]

A story emerged yesterday that reports that the average per mobile app user acquisition cost is declining. While that may be good news for advertising buyers, it may not be such good news for the overall health of the mobile economy. That’s because the transition from desktop and laptop-based digital marketing to mobile form factors […]

In the marketing world, the Super Bowl marks the beginning of all-new advertising campaigns featuring some of the largest brands in the world. It used to be the case that almost all the ads that aired during the game appeared for the first time during the broadcast, but that has changed in recent years with […]

The rapid migration to smartphones and tablets from laptops and desktops has happened at a breath taking pace. While that has created a massive business opportunity, the supply of mobile apps and mobile websites has grown even faster than our demand for that content. The result is that the cost to advertise in mobile has […]

Two stories on mobile app monetization caught my eye last week. Both offer valuable insights on making mobile revenues that every app developer and publisher should internalize, though they come with headlines that don’t quite deliver on their stories’ full meaning. The first story comes from a conference that took place in New York. Its […]