Mobile Fix – Google; Twitter; and more new SMS

In the latest Mobile Fix, Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, discusses Google’s focus on location; Twitter’s global growth; and innovation around SMS…

Google takes Location seriously

Many aspects of smart search are location related and therefore it’s been a priority for some time at Google. But with the move of one of Google’s most high profile people to focus on it, we think it is now a key issue for them – and for everyone else too.

John Battelle has some good thoughts on the implication of Marissa Mayers move and on location generally.

Twitter growing globally

New ComScore data shows just how big Twitter is getting – in lots of markets. Whilst its influence in the US and the UK continues to grow, penetration in markets like Brazil is double that of most western markets; 20.8% of Brazilian web users have visited Twitter.com compared with 11.9% in the US and 10.9% in the UK.

Obviously traffic through apps like Tweetdeck is not recorded, but the point of this data is that Twitter is going mainstream all over the world.  And they’re now starting to get their heads around how to monetise this usage with advertising.

“We feel like we’ve cracked the code on a new form of advertising, and we feel like we’ve got a hit on our hands,” said Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief.

We shouldn’t forget that the rapid growth of Facebook continues, as this data on their 3 year growth shows

Google looks at cheap handsets for growth in emerging markets

The data on Facebook and Twitter reminds us that emerging markets are very rapid adopters of new technologies. But to reach scale in these markets, hardware needs different price points. Google is looking for ways of getting lower cost Android phones into India and is partnering with local hardware brands to try and get the price below $200.

More New SMS

We mentioned Fast Society last week as an example of the innovation around SMS and we now find there is another company offering the ability to create groups for texting and calls.

GroupMe is very similar but like Fast Society only available in the US – does anyone know of anyone doing something similar in Europe? We think this has lots of potential.

Bits

We mentioned recently that US brands were experimenting with QR codes in TV ads as a way to use mobile as a response tool. Now we see Faithless are using Shazam as the response device for their new UK TV ad. This builds on the work Shazam is doing in the US to build a role as a response device.

Amazon have struck a deal to preload their ebook reader Kindle on Verizon Android phones; we’re going to see more people look at this type of deal to avoid getting lost in app stores – a problem Amazon are trying to solve with their own app store.

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