As smartphone makers increasingly produce their own mobile browsers, usually supporting the WebKit standard, Opera is relying on the midmarket to sustain its own market share. It is also looking to expand its business model in the face of increased competition, and it has jumped into another crowded segment, mobile advertising ‘ where it may target third party browsers in future.
The firm’s new Open Mobile Ad Exchange service is a cloud-based platform allowing brands and publishers to place ads on mobile web pages. It is positioned as a ‘network of networks’ because it can be used by other ad exchanges too and while it is currently confined to Opera Mini, it could support other browsers in future releases.
Initially it targets low end smartphones and featurephones running its cut-down Opera Mini browser, which is renowned for its efficient delivery of web pages to less powerful handsets. The ad exchange should help to round out the mobile experience for these midrange users, especially in emerging economies, tapping into a user base that is neglected by many of the high end advertising services. Opera relies heavily on operators bundling and branding its browser to increase its reach, especially in emerging markets, and the Ad Exchange is likely to target the same channel.
The new platform works by embedding JavaScript code into the web pages that Opera serves. The ads do not appear in the browser interface itself, only the page contents.
The latest move follows Opera’s acquisition of AdMarvel in January. It paid $8 million in cash and could add up to $15 million more subject to certain targets being met. AdMarvel manages ad delivery to handsets, and analyzes their effectiveness, and it allows publishers to target users by country, device type or operator. Its monetization and analytics services have now been combined with the Opera browser and widget platform, offering a complete package to cellcos.
Opera says Mini now reaches 66.5 million mobile users but since that is a free download, it needs new ways to monetize the browser beyond carrier or OEM licensing agreements. And at least featurephones, which still account for about 90% of handset sales, could deliver volume, with Opera Mini being the lead browser in that space.
Recent research from Smaato, a mobile ad measurement firm, illustrates the sense of concentrating on the mass market while Apple iAd, Google AdMob and others battle for the smartphone. It found that ad clicks on low end devices were growing quickly and set to overtake those on high end phones in volume terms. Indeed, the featurephone could topple worldwide clickthrough rates on Symbian, the current leader, as early as next month, and has seen gains in every month of this year, says the firm.