Developers are the Core of the Mobile Advertising Market

The Seoul Economic Daily has covered the InMobi opinion piece today. Eunjung Son, Developer Channel Manager of InMobi Korea, has explained that Korea market related to mobile advertising is quickly becoming the core market, but needs to have more developer focus with showing some insight.

With the world’s mobile users reaching 1 billion users, the recent earnings of two IT companies both indicate that ‘mobile advertising is the general trend.’ As Facebook’s third and fourth quarter’s strong earnings were driven by profit from mobile advertisements, stock price in off-board transactions increased up to 13%. The reason behind Google’s earnings dropping at the same time could also be inferred as the market shift towards mobile. It is thus not an overstatement to say that these changes are the market ‘reaction’ in the mobile era.

In Korea, more than half of mobile users are smartphone users. Breaking down the time spent on smartphones, calls only consist of 37% and the remaining time is spent enjoying multi-media and various applications. Such figures give ground to the assertion that the market related to mobile advertising is quickly becoming the core market. Mobile advertisement is no longer a new phenomenon or an unfamiliar medium. Like the banner advertisement which appeared with the internet in the late 1990s, mobile advertisement is settling down as an information element within everyday life.

However, mobile advertisement possesses not only the freshness of a new medium but also a characteristic that differentiates itself with the pre-existing advertisements. That is, mobile web and app developers serve as core figures in the process of conveying the message to consumers and ultimately inducing consumption. Compared to traditional internet advertisement, mobile advertisement provides more diverse and departmentalized ads. This is why the role of app and service developers is particularly important as they serve the role of media.

In the mobile advertisement market, app developers are primarily the source of generating simple revenue through advertisement exposure. However, on second thought, apps they make can be a strong ‘media’ like a broadcasting station or a newspaper in the past. Ultimately, securing killer apps in an advertisement network is the most necessary and best way to satisfying the advertiser. Hence the relationship with developers desperately needs to improve from a simple contractual relationship to a partnership.

To app developers, mobile advertisement is a blue ocean. Although the public still tends to regard it as a simple means to generate revenue by allocating a part from app interface, it needs to move away from this stereotype. Through informational advertisement that can create a synergy effect with app contents, developers can provide better experience and service to users as well as enjoying the maximum revenue. Recently, many venture companies are starting up based on mobile service and apps. They can target not only the Korean market but also overseas and have the opportunity to introduce their apps and service to a bigger market.

Online article on Seoul Economic Daily site can be accessed here:
http://economy.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/201211/e2012110718325648120.htm