Mobile operators are biggest threat to DoubleClick
Rating: Never mind deep packets, what about payment analysis?
by Tony Dennis
I’ve been mulling over remarks reportedly
made by one Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital at a recent Always On venture
capital conference. His remarks were not only US-centric, they were also fixed
line-centric.
However, his topic – ‘deep packet analysis’ was very thought provoking. Gurley
was thinking in terms of the fixed web when really he should have turned his
attention to the mobile web. Because if anyone is going to deliver a nasty
shock to the likes of DoubleClick, it will be the AT&T/Cingulars and
T-Mobiles of this world.
Gurley’s theory is that techniques originally developed for troubleshooting LANs
– including deep packet analysis – can be transposed onto any IP based network.
So the ISPs can – and in some instances reputedly already are – building up an
analysis of individual users’ web behaviour.
By doing so the ISPs would have a much more precise method of evaluating the
efficacy of online adverts that DoubleClick with its cookies.
However, the major mobile networks -
certainly in the UK – are actually obligated to watch their own users’
behaviour so, for example, they don’t serve up adult content to youngsters.
It wouldn’t be that hard for a mobile operator to gather statistics on exactly how
many people had gone to a specific web address.
Here’s another thought. What if the mobile operators got together with a mobile
payments fulfilment house like Bango? Back in June, Bango actually released
figures it had compiled from its own data on mobile web usage in over 190
countries.
Then, not only could the mobile operators prove how many people had been sent
to a particular advert but they would also have a fairly accurate idea of how
many actually purchased specific products.
Such behaviour would probably seriously
antagonise those who advocate ‘net neutrality’ but there would be very little
they could do about it in the end.
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