UK mobile carriers join up to target users

There is a new collaboration making waves with UK mobile carriers and users. The Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) has announced a group effort between Vodafone Group, Telefonica 02 Europe, T-Mobile International, FT-Orange Group and 3, all European mobile carriers, to better target mobile users.

by Kristina Knight

The collaboration is hoped to better behaviorally target consumers in the mobile realm. To that end, the carriers are sharing some consumer information so that they can target relevant mobile ads to the users. A third-party company, which is as yet unnamed, collects the information into a central database for the advertisers use. The partnerships will eventually made available for advertising to SMS/MMS messaging, mobile gaming and mobile video.

Henry Stevens, GSMA's director of media and entertainment, says they are working to protect consumer's privacy at the same time the mobile providers are sharing information.

eMarketer is forecasting the mobile messaging (SMS, MMS, IM and email) will grow from $1.5 billion in 2006 to more than $11.5 billion (worldwide) by 2011. If those numbers are reached, message-based advertising will account for 11% of the mobile ad market.

The European partnership has been running for several months. The GSMA reports that they are in talks with several US mobile carriers to install a similar program in the US in the coming months.