One month ago I interviewed Michael Luni Libes from Ground Truth and because he was on holiday in Alaska and I was about to start a three week holiday in California I never managed to write up the interview. He did warn me that bigger news was coming. One day after I returned with my head spinning in jetlag I got a press release saying Umber Systems has merged with Ground Truth. So, it was indeed big news!
I contacted Michael again and we did the interview one more time.
BENA: Michael, my initial thought when I heard about this new company was it was good but what is the new brand and who is the main owner?
LUNI: Mobile Intelligence Solutions is a single company, formed by the merger of Umber and Ground Truth.
BENA: I read that you will remain CTO of Ground Truth how this will work as a merger. I believe the companies will keep their brands so is this a joint venture? Are there separate accounts and revenue share or a full merger?
LUNI: The results of the merger is a new company: Mobile Intelligence Solutions, Inc., operating with two divisions: Umber and Ground Truth. Asa Kalavade, founder of Umber is the CTO of Mobile Intelligence, I’m the “Chief Research Officer” (CRO). We are continuing the use of the two previous company names to avoid confusion in the market, as the two products are solving different problems for different types of customers. Both internally and externally, it’s far easier to say “Ground Truth” when talking about syndicated market research, and “Umber” when talking about operator analytics, and not worry that they are now owned by the same people.
BENA: Before I go into Mobile Intelligence Solutions, will you give me the quick overview of what Ground Truth is?
LUNI: Ground Truth measures the mobile Internet. More specifically, we measure the consumption of mobile Web and mobile apps. And we do this by analyzing the actual usage from tens of millions of mobile subscribers.
BENA: What are the key metrics?
LUNI: The key metrics are uniques, pages, sessions, and time (duration). All of these are derived from logs containing the page-by-page usage of tens of millions of devices. Uniques are a count of the total audience size visiting a web site or using an app. Page views are a count of the total pages per web site. Sessions are a series of page views to the same site or app, without a long idle time. This is straight out the IAB definition for sessions/visits. Time/Duration is calculated from the timestamps of the pages within a session on the web, or the timestamps of the start and stop events within an app.
BENA: Do you focus on metrics for mobile operators or brands and vendors?
LUNI: We do both. We measure the internal usage for our data partners, and then combine that aggregate usage amongst all our data partners to generate the projected, market-wide reports for brands, agencies, and marketers.
BENA: But the fact that mobile intelligence of any sort is the hype right now must mean that selling to operators is a very tough call. Was it difficult to sell as a small business?
LUNI: Selling to operators is a long, slow process, no matter what size business you are, and no matter whether you are trying to give them a free service or charge them a few million dollars. Ultimately, the abilty to do business with an operator comes down to the benefit of the provided service to the operator. Part of our decision for merging Ground Truth and Umber was that our offer to operators would be far more compelling if combined, than if competitive. And the remainder of that decision was that once combined, the resulting company would then have a far larger footprint of operator customers from which to build new opportunities with yet more benefit to those operators, plus benefits to our business, as well as benefits to the entire mobile market. The first of these market-oriented products is our syndicated mobile research, still branded Ground Truth, providing the market with the only accurate, timely view of the mobile Internet. Second is our in-app measurement program, Ground Truth Application Measurement, launched now with Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T, providing mobile application demographics, at no cost to application developers. Third, fourth, and fifth will come in time…
BENA: I have to admit I am not the expert on Umber Systems. What was the key thing that connected you and how long were you discussing this new company?
LUNI: Ground Truth and Umber met in the market almost two years ago, while talking with wireless operators. Umber’s business model has been, and continues as a division of Mobile Intelligence Solutions to be, to sell a suite of analytics tools to wireless operators, to help them optimize their businesses. As part of Ground Truth’s business model, we were providing a subset of those services to operators, but not to the depth or breadth of the Umber solution. Early in 2011, the two companies began discussions which led to the merger, then and now wrapped around the idea that together our products and companies would be more than the individual parts.
BENA: So post merger, what are you competitive highlights?
LUNI: Post-merger, there are two separate products sold to two different types of companies. Umber is operator-scale analytics, designed from the ground up to provide deep analysis of usage of mobile data services. It’s a market-proven solution, processing tens of billions of records per day, producing actionable intelligence which operators are using to improve and optimize their business.
Ground Truth is the most precise, actionable syndicated market research covering usage of the U.S. mobile Internet. The reports are based not on tiny panels or surveys, but on the actual usage of tens of millions of mobile subscribers. This allows for coverage of the top 10,000+ web sites, clickstream analysis showing how site audiences are related, and more.
BENA: The competition is still pretty tough and I just recently had a chat with another company Guavus which was boasting its expertise in all media (including online) analytics gave it a stronger competitive advantage. As an expert in mobile, do you agree?
LUNI: “Analytics” is a huge space, with room for a variety of specialties and mashups. With this merger, we’re focused on what we think are two of the most needed areas: helping operators understand how people use their networks; and spreading that information widely across the ecosystem, helping mobile developers, marketers and advertisers more quickly grow the usage of the mobile Internet.
What we think?
Consolidation often takes place in the mobile space as there is a lot of talent and a lot of potential. This merger reflects educated people respecting the fact that it might be better to collaborate than compete. This merger will make Umber and Ground Truth better and tougher competitors in an already tough and competitive market space.
