Tag Archives: mobile economy

Why Is Facebook Killing It in Mobile, While The New York Times Struggles?

Last week, both Facebook and The New York Times reported quarterly earnings. While Facebook continues to show impressive growth in its mobile revenues – 49 percent of total revenues, which themselves increased by 66 percent – The New York Times digital and mobile advertising business limped through a down quarter. The paper actually recorded quarter-over-quarter […]

Marissa Mayer’s Hidden Four-Step Approach To Rebuilding Yahoo Into A Mobile Powerhouse

About three years ago, I became an ex-Yahoo user. I happened to be traveling on business in China, and I awoke one morning to a phone filled with text messages and voice mails letting me know that my Yahoo mail account had been hacked. I already had grown weary of a cluttered Yahoo mail experience […]

Putting Facebook’s Mobile Results In Perspective

Facebook’s quarterly gains in mobile ad revenue boosted spirits on Wall Street last week, especially for those who have been long on the social networking titan since its bumpy IPO last year. What does Facebook’s performance indicate about the overall health of the mobile economy? I see mostly positive developments and some useful lessons for […]

Office Depot Finds Its Mobile Mojo

Looking for examples of brick and mortar stores that are embracing the mobile revolution? I’ve found one that may inspire you. Several months ago, I wrote about the challenges and opportunities brick and mortar stores have in a world increasingly connected by mobile devices. Customers have taken to “showrooming” store merchandise, by which I mean […]

More Good News For The Mobile Economy

A few months ago, I noted the attempts various companies, Google and Yahoo in particular, were taking to accelerate the growth of the mobile economy and mobile advertising in particular. You can read about it here. This week brought news of the latest development in this effort: the release of new guidelines by the Interactive […]

Google’s “glass half-full” view of the mobile economy

Google’s earnings announcement on Wednesday, Jan. 22, prompted a spike in its stock price despite delivering some news that at first glance looked bad. What’s going on here? Like many companies that have built their businesses on attracting a digital audience to serve largely digital content, Google is confronting and managing a massive shift in […]

Making Money with Your Mobile App: Three Business Models, No Knockouts

I can’t stop thinking about ways the mobile app industry as a whole, and the companies that drive it, can make money. As I have written before, that’s primarily driven by an interest in self-preservation. I work in this industry, and it has to generate more money for more players. Today, the apps side of […]

The advertising economy in mobile, part 2: why it’s still relatively small (but bound to change)

In part one of this series, I noted the economic disparity between TV and digital advertising revenues on the one hand, and mobile advertising and app revenues on the other. To understand why mobile ad revenues aren’t as substantial, consider these three obstacles facing the mobile advertising industry. Each will need to change in order […]

The advertising economy in mobile, part 1: where’s the money?

I’ve worked in the world of mobile apps and developers for over six years, and along the way, I’ve cultivated a point of view on the economics of this space. You may be considering how to monetize your mobile investments, so today, I’ll share my analysis of the mobile advertising economy. Later, I’ll write about […]