mobilePeople adds sponsored links to Norways search engine Schibsted

Rating: sesame seed advertising

by Bena Roberts

mobilePeople will run an advertising on Schibsted’s mobile search portal. Advertisers will now be able to have links placed next to search results.

Schibsted who?

Schibsted is Norway’s number one search engine. (www.sesam.no or wap.sesam.no) It’s all a bit strange actually as Schibsted mobile search technology is provided by Fastsearch. But Fast also has a collaboration with mobilePeople and mobilePeople also license some of Fastsearch’s services.

So this is a double whammy for Fast.

1. Schibsted continues its newspaper services via WAP

2. Fastsearch wins licensing revenue from Schibsted for its mobile search solution

3. Fastsearch also benefits from licensing revenue from mobilePeople.

What is also clear from this new partnership is the introduction of enterprise search. Schibsted is an enterprise player as is Fast and mobilePeople has been servicing the mobile directory market. This means that mobilePeoples’s partnerships with companies such as Sensis and Yell could also be utilised to serve targeted ads to Schibsted users – depending on the search criteria.

What is not clear is why Schibsted didn’t use Fast’s own advertising services. In this tightly competitive mobile search and advertising white label market – Fast might be eager to share deals with partners but unless its running its own “acquisition” strategy it might not be the best long term solution. A lot counts for how many users and customers on board – not merely how large the WAP index is.

Want to know more?
See Medio vs JumpTap and Fastsearch in the next issue of the Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst
mobilePeople company analysis in July’s issue of The Mobile Search Analyst - following a three part series on federated mobile search looking at MCN, Targetize and mobilePeople.

Related News:

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2. Mobile Search company mobilePeople gets USD 8 million from Via Venture Partners
3. Local mobile search provider mobilePeople creates Java application for Truvo
4. mobilePeople targets local mobile advertising with liquid Advertising Suite
5. Microsoft (finally makes a wise mobile search move) Buys FAST Search and Transfer