FT, Advertising And Mobile Site Evolution
It's interesting to see how the evolution of mobile sites is running like that of the websites.
Currently most sites look rather like the old "under construction" homepages of old, though designers are starting to break that mould more and more, such as Emap's FHM mobile site.
The FT is now planning to produce a mobile site that is funded by advertising and free for the public to use.
Currently the FT has a mobile presence, but this is via a Java midlet the user has to download to their phone and pay for content.
Advertisers and agencies are coming to us for integrated campaigns and now we can include mobile. So you can get an ad in the paper and online, plus sponsorship of the mobile service itself. There will always be a model for premium content, but we'll increasingly apply the advertising model to mobile.
This is starting to mirror how websites work, and is another step down the road to digital convergence. The majority of non e-commerce websites offer their content for free, subsidising the cost of running the site with the income from advertising targetting their users.
The market will try to charge users for content if it thinks the customer will pay. Gradually more content will appear for free and with digital convergence, standard websites will become accessible to mobile devices. Content based sites will have to start taking this route soon. Charging for downloads such as ringtones and games will still be possible, but I wonder how long it will take for a viable p2p client to appear in the mobile world. p2p changed the face of home internet usage, it could happen again for mobile. Once you can get games, videos and ringtones for free this way, why pay? It will be the killer app mobile is crying out for.