Marco Boerries is the executive VP of Yahoo Inc.’s Connected Life Division, which encompasses the company’s mobile, digital home, PC client and broadband teams around the world, including Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 and Yahoo oneSearch products for mobile.
Q: What are the unique challenges and opportunities posed by the mobile medium?
A: The global mobile opportunity is tremendous. One of the challenges for the entire industry is helping users figure out what’s possible on mobile. At Yahoo, we feel the key is to develop innovative “mobile first” experiences, and provide consumers with simple, open, compelling and feature- rich applications that increase audience and engagement for mobile services. Another challenge for the industry is fostering mobile application development. Innovation is happening everywhere, but in many cases it’s too expensive and complex for developer publishers. Mobile publishers have long been constrained by the high costs of development resources, the fragmented landscape of mobile devices, browsers and operating systems, and the lack of scalable development platforms. These barriers have limited the options for both consumers and publishers, handicapping the adoption of mobile data services at levels way below the potential of the marketplace.
Q: Is mobile advertising becoming a reality? How does Yahoo see the medium developing?
A: Mobile advertising is not just becoming a reality, it is a reality — brands and marketers are doing more than just testing the waters; they are thinking of mobile as an integral part of their overall campaigns. What you’ll see more and more is brand marketers engaging deeper with mobile and demanding mobile-first advertising — advertising created specifically for the mobile consumer. A campaign that runs on TV or the PC can’t just be ported to a mobile experience — it has to be designed for mobile first. Many advertisers are going mobile for the first time and are turning to Yahoo to navigate the emerging market. It is our charge to make it possible for them to reach their target customers wherever they are, seamlessly following them from the PC to the mobile Internet. We see an incredibly bright future for this emerging market.
Q: How important a revenue stream will advertising realistically become for operators?
A: As voice services become a commodity, and data revenue plans flatten, mobile operators around the world are looking to content and services for revenue growth. Like the Web, consumers expect more of these services for free — so mobile advertising is critical and will ultimately provide them with new revenue streams. We have continued signing carrier partners because we consistently hear that Yahoo has the best products, and they like that we are very focused on creating mobile products, services and advertising solutions tailored to both the operator and consumer’s needs. We’re able to deliver compelling consumer services and mobile first advertising that drive data usage for operators and help marketers connect to targeted opportunities in mobile advertising.
Q: How important are carrier alliances, and how do you expect those relationships to evolve in the next year or two?
A: Carriers are a very important part of our strategy; by working together both parties can succeed and produce a higher level of profitability and deeper consumer engagement. Carriers have relationships with vast numbers of consumers and provide us access to those consumers, as well as carrier-controlled assets that help us deliver differentiated product experiences. Anyone who thinks that carrier relationships aren’t an important part of a winning mobile strategy is going to quickly be proven otherwise. To date, we’ve announced Yahoo oneSearch partnership agreements with more than 29 leading mobile operators covering more than 600 million mobile subscribers around the world.
Q: From Yahoo’s perspective, what are the factors necessary for mobile search to be successful?
A: Adoption of mobile search and related services will continue to increase due to several industry factors. Networks are faster and data usage is becoming more widespread around the globe. As data pricing rates become standard and billing is more transparent, consumers will gain confidence in using data services. Mobile search providers, carriers and device manufacturers will make mobile services easier to access and provide consumers with multiple input methods that complement the strengths of the mobile device. Mobile advertising is a category that is taking off, enabling marketers to reach millions of engaged mobile users. This provides financial incentives for the industry to make search and related services more discoverable and accessible for consumers.
Q: What are the challenges of providing search on mobile compared to the traditional Internet?
A: As the PC is an entirely different experience than the mobile phone, the search experience for mobile has to be built from the ground up, as one cannot simply take PC search and cram it onto a mobile screen — it just doesn’t work. Mobile search needs to present information so it’s ready for any consumer, on any mobile device, across any carrier and geographical region. One of the challenges is building a search experience that’s meaningful to a user’s situation — whether they’re on-the-go and looking for a specific answer or killing time in between a meeting or appointment — both cases need to figure into the product’s ability to deliver relevant information and also allow the consumer to drill down further for additional results or information.
Q: Who will profit from an increase in usage of the mobile Internet and where are the profits to be made?
A: As the mobile Internet is a relatively nascent market, everyone in the industry should be focusing on “growing the pie” — making decisions to maximize long-term growth instead of short-term profits. The opportunity is large enough that there will be significant revenue to be shared among all players who deliver value to the end user. As the market develops, this ecosystem approach to the market will raise the tides of all parties involved.
