The Open Mobile Ad Exchange announced
We just published a press release announcing the Open Mobile Ad Exchange, which lets advertisers and publishers reach users of the dominant mobile browser, Opera Mini.
The Open Mobile Ad Exchange is "cloud-based advertising on feature phones and smartphone", according to the press release. You may recall Opera Software's acquisition of AdMarvel earlier this year, and this is a result of that.
But what does this actually mean? What is this, and what isn't it? …
Ads will not be inserted into Opera Mini itself
First of all, let's be very clear on what this isn't: The Open Mobile Ad Exchange is not about showing ads in Opera's user interface. You will not start seeing these ads inserted into Opera Mini itself.
What the Open Mobile Ad Exchange is, is a way for advertisers and publishers to reach not only smartphones, but also normal feature phones. This is a large and untapped market with vast opportunities. Opera Mini is the biggest mobile browser,with morethan 66 million users worldwide, and growing quickly.
But how are these ads shown?
As I wrote above, the ads are not inserted into Opera Mini itself. Rather, they will appear on normal web pages, just like any other web page ad. Of course these ads will be optimized for Opera Mini, and thus give a better experience for users, and a more powerful and relevant platform for advertisers and publishers (with AdMarvel's awesome tools to track and optimize their investment).
So why should you care about it?
The announcement is primarily aimed at publishers and advertisers, but it is also relevant (and good news!) for users of Opera Mini. We will now be able to increase the revenue coming from Opera Mini, which means that we get even more money to make it even better! Remember, a company like Opera needs to make money to survive (as we can't rely on being promoted by a monopoly, or funded by "sugar-daddies"), and running a service like Opera Mini can be costly.
I think this is a win-win situation for everyone. Opera Software will see increased revenues from the Opera Mini user base, which means that we can continue to invest in improving the product to the benefit of the users, and publishers advertisers will find a new audience for their content.
An Archive From Behind the Trenches 
Sounds good. I hope the ad loading will not cost too much time/traffic on users side, otherwise the advantages of Opera Mini will be less huge.
Does Opera Mini support blocklists? Still waiting for Opera Mobile to hit Android.
On most websites O Mini still accounts for less than 1% of hits. So I am not convinced that there is enough motivation for publishers to take part in this program. Of course, as a publisher and an Opera user, I would love to be proven wrong.
Originally posted by Indyan:
Nah. Opera Mini is the #1 browser in many countries. Completely dominant in Russia, for example.You are narrow-mindedly thinking about North America, and nothing else. But the world is much bigger than that. The real growth markets are the places where Opera is big.
Shouldn't the advertisement section be more findable in Opera.com? (Do you know if that is to come, if not, I will head on over to the right forum and suggest it)
Originally posted by Indyan:
You're comparing Opera Mini usage to desktop web browsers usage. Opera is the most used mobile web browser worldwide and Ad Exchange is about "mobile-targeted" ads, not desktop.Sounds really good the ads will get adapted to the phone Opera is running, one of the problems of mobile ads today is the size of them on the different displays sizes.
A targeted market of 60M active users? That's quite a lot of ad-impressions.
What I am saying is that the overall hits a website gets with Opera Mini is quite low. For example, a site getting 10K visits per day might get only 100 visitors who are using O Mini. So that means the website will have 100 ad impressions in OMAE. If the CTR is around 3%, then the no. of clicks will be 3. That isn't definitely enough revenue for most people to bother with.Originally posted by prd3:
US,CA,UK are the countries where the advertising bucks are. How many advertisers are there from countries like Indonesia and Cambodia?
Originally posted by Indyan:
May be there are the biggest advertising companies but someone has to pay them and it I hardly see any US, CA, UK ads here (meaning: 1 of 1000) if I don't visit US CA UK pages. Most of the ads I see are localized for my country and the local companies pay the advertising companies for delivering the ads. The same goes for all other countries. Just visit some foreign country pages in a foreign language containing ads and you will hardly see any lang:en adds too ;)BTW: Mobile surfing in many countries is still more expensive than via cable, so it can be assumed that the visitors have the money to buy things. I don't surf to a company page with a mobile phone if I don't intend to buy something, especially not, if I have to pay the for the data volume 😉
Originally posted by Indyan:
Your xenophobia is only matched by your ignorance on the matter. Look up the list of where the real growth is happening. It's not in North America. Why do you think everyone from Google to Microsoft wants a piece of the emerging markets? That's where they can make the big bucks in the future.
I can guess that part of the money will go towards running the Opera Mini servers
I think that was the plan 😀
Originally posted by prd3:
LOL, I think he choose the name Indyan for a reason. Take a look where he is from. I'll give you another hint, it is from a country with one of the fastest growing economies in the world and yet is already the 11th largest.That is not to say I don't agree with the gist of this article (that Open Mobile Ad Exchange is a good thing from Opera and Opera fans) but you might have chosen the wrong angle for your attack as he probably doesn't have the NA bias you assumed. 😉
@Pallab By reading Haavard's text I think they'll be putting the same ads in all websites Opera Mobile / Mini users visits, which means about 60000000 viwers, not 100.
Okey rafael..
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/06/opera_ad_exchange/
Originally posted by rafaelluik:
Does this mean that ads will appear on sites that have *not* agreed to having ads inserted? Or will replace ads put there by other paid-for advertisers? Could cause ructions. Some clarification of the model would be useful.
Okey my friends..
The top 1000 sites visited by Mini users, should be getting enough traffic for this to be worth their time.
It's is good step to take innovative leads in web browser market.Hope it will go ahead successfully.Opera mini has a huge impact on mobile browser.But I don't still see Opera Mobile is being so succesfull where competitors like UCWEB,SKYFIRE give more advanced options.Specially browsers like SKYFIRE can play streaming video (silverlight and flash)and gives better compatibility and user experience if you have unlimited data plan and fast internet connection.And there are other options like bolt, teashark .etc.And also opera hasn't been able to make a big impact on destop browser market where Microsoft IE and Mozilla Fire fox are the current dominant figures.I hope and wish fast growing opera will have surpassed them someday in future.But competition is hard and becoming harder.Better the competition best for the user because more innovative,advanced and stable products will be put forward for better end user experience
Originally posted by smartrocker:
What a load of BS. Opera is the #1 mobile browser by far. If that isn't "successful", I don't know what is. Those other browsers aren't even showing up on the radar. They are irrelevant.
Again, nonsense. Skyfire is not even a browser. Just a media player using the standard browser on the system. Also, Skyfire is about to go bankrupt.
And they all suck compared to Opera. BTW, when was the last time you heard ANYTHING from Teashark?
Complete and utter BS. Opera has basically defined the functionality of the modern browser, and has a market share of up to 30-50% in many countries.But anyway, what on earth does your nonsensical, ignorant, irrelevant comment have to do with the Open Mobile Ad Exchange?
Originally posted by Words:
Obviously not. Those are the PUBLISHERS, and obviously need to request ads from Opera.
:up:
Originally posted by Haavard:
lol.. didn't get it at first 😛
ooo weee
Mobile web browsing still accounts for less than 2% of internet browsing.But with the rise of smartphones and feature phones mobile web is likely to be expand.So ad exchange programs on mobile web applications have a good potential cutomer base which is increasing day by day.So opera's adexchange program is a important step for opera's future sucess. It will at least reduce the cost spent to continue the services like opera mini if there is no net profit.
Important things to consider: Mini stays free. Mini does not advertise inside the User Interface. Sounds good to me.
i thinks its good and seems to work good. As people prefer to use opera specially mini even a number of other options are present.
I think its really a win-win start where All can have a better attachment to one another…
Ads wads would, I guess, affect the functionality of Opera Mini to some extent, no?
Originally posted by bumarwat:
Why? How?
Originally posted by prd3:
Huh? As pointed out by Ruario, I am from India. Trust me I know all about the booming startup scene in Indonesia and India. Originally posted by Rafael Luik:
I don't think so. Publishers need to sign up. And publishers won't bother unless the profit is significant. I really hope Opera suceeds. The Q3 financial report says that Admarvel has had a positive impact on Opera Soft. But, Opera Mini+Mobile accounts for around about 1% (or even less) for publishers having predominantly US/CA/UK readers. Let's see how many publishers actually sign up.
Wow, the bigotry is amazing.First of all, many sites have a lot of Opera visitors. Of course they will want to sign up.Secondly, what's with the US/CA/UK masturbation? There's more to the world than those countries.Also, stop lying about "1%" and other nonsense, liar.
Originally posted by prd3:
Liar? Check out the stats dude. You are forgetting that I have my own reasonably popular blog, and I write for a very popular blog. I also follow a lot of blogs, and do have some idea about these kind of things. Back up your claims before calling me a liar. In general the % of visitors for most popular websites from Opera Mini+Mobile is around 1%.
Originally posted by Indyan:
Why would I check out proven lies?
Yes, I have seen these blogs too. They are written by complete idiots who blindly repeat the blatant lies they are being told by others. No one bothers to fact check anything. These blogs are an echo chamber of idiocy, stupidity and ignorance.And not only blogs, but the news media as well. Ignorant fools.
Again the lies. Opera Mini has about the same number of users as Chrome. How can Chrome then have 10% and Opera Mini less than 1%?Because THE "STATS" ARE BLATANT LIES!FAIL.