According to a report from Globes, Facebook is in advanced talks to acquire social GPS mobile app Waze for $500 million. Other reports estimate the deal to be between $800 million and $1 billion. There’s a huge difference between half a billion and a billion.
It’s not the first time we heard rumors about Facebook buying Israel’s Waze. Back in October 2012, Facebook and Waze partnered to release an updated version of its app to allow users to share their destination with their Facebook friends. At the same time, the four founding members of Waze raised $30 million from Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Ifund. The company has raised $67 million to date.
Waze is a free mobile app that includes GPS navigation and use real-time crowdsourcing to ‘outsmart traffic’. Waze uses satellite signals from its users to map traffic data. All is shared in real-time, to allow drivers to make the best decision when going to a destination. The mobile app has been awarded “Best Overall Mobile App” at the 2013 Global Mobile Awards!
Click to continue…
CHART: How Mobile Phones Are Killing The Magazine BusinessBusiness InsiderBut the Kantar numbers offer a clue that mobile phones may be killing the magazine business. Web display advertising also declined in the quarter, by -5.4%.
See on www.businessinsider.com
Click to continue…
The next time you log in to MailChimp, you’ll find all kinds of new mobile goodness. MailChimp announced last week that they’ve released new mobile friendly email templates, a new mobile styles editor, a new mobile pop-up preview and testing tools, a new Instapaper merge tag, and more.
These tools will come in very handy for the mobile marketer, since you already know if you’re reading Mobinsider, smartphones are outselling PCs. Everybody’s walking around with mini-computers in their pockets. As a result, this changes the way your subscribers consume email. E-mail marketing service MailChimp announced 15 new mobile-friendly email templates available through their service to help email and mobile marketers be more effective.
Click to continue…
This week’s white paper ebook from Mobile Commerce Daily Learn how to improve Android app discovery, drive more installs, and generate long-term, loyal usage.
To get your copy of Android App Marketing & Google Play go to the link and input your e-mail credentials and receive the e-book for free.
“When asked about mobile marketing ROI compared to traditional initiatives, 52 percent of mobile marketers stated mobile returns were higher while only 15 percent stated their returns as lower. For those reporting results, the average ROI was 32 percent. As a result, nearly three-quarters of marketers are increasing mobile marketing budgets and/or shifting budget to mobile from other marketing programs by an average of more than 20 percent.”
Read the full study for more findings on how mobile marketing outperforms traditional forms of marketing.
The CTIA have released their results from their most recent semi-annual survey. The data collected reflects the results for wireless providers that serve 95% of wireless subscribers in the United States.
The findings? More and more people are using SMS and in some cases texting more than talking.
You can see some of the other highlights from the survey here, or download it here.
Millennial Media–the independent leader in mobile advertising–released a new widely-sourced report last week outlining Q1 market share estimates and trends across mobile devices and operating systems. The report shows significant growth in ad impressions among tablets and non-phone connected devices. Tablets — the top being Apple’s iPad, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Amazon’s Kindle Fire — accounted for 20% of all ad impressions during the first quarter of 2012. This is an increase from 15% in the first quarter exactly one year before.
Click to continue…
If you haven’t jumped feet first into the world of mobile marketing, there’s no better time than now.
According to Google, the mobile Web is growing eight times the speed of the Internet, showing how digital marketing is quickly becoming a mobile-first world.
Last year, U.S. mobile users were buying more smartphones than they were in 2010. By the end of the year, almost 75 percent of mobile devices sold were smartphones. This is worth nothing, as only approximately 33% of U.S. mobile handset sales were attributable to smartphones just two years before. Click to continue…
Danny is the CEO and founder of Mobinsider, a site for mobile marketing entrepreneurs with news, articles, links, reports, interviews, webinars and digital magazine with mobile marketing experts. His passion is helping entrepreneurs find their passion in mobile and be successful.
