The Business Of Mobile Search

Forbes has dones a good article on mobile search…or at least in comparing the experience of Google, Yahoo and 4INFO. The result? “We recommend using Yahoo! SMS for stock quotes, 4Info for movie times and drink recipes and Google for settling trivia bets. All three handle weather decently, but who can ever really get it right?”
Particularly interesting for me was the point that none of the mobile search engines are making money, and some indication of where 4INFO plans to get revenue:
“The ones not making money on it yet are the search engines. “We really don’t generate revenue right now,” says 4Info Chief Executive Officer Pankaj Shah, who founded the company last year with $8 million in funding from venture firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S. Venture Partners. His plan is eventually to sell ringtones or wallpaper and to channel relevant interactive ads that generate transaction fees, as in movie ticket purchases. “Yahoo! and Google getting into this area validates everything we’ve done,” he says.” (via SearchEngineWatch)
Related stories:
4INFO Officially Launches Mobile Search
4INFO Targets Fantasy Sports Fans With Statistics App
Nokia Introduces Mobile Search to its Smartphones

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