Category Archives: business

Ad agencies and giant brands showed support to MMA council in Mexico

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Advertising agencies and giant brands showed support to the launch of Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)–Mexico in response to the growing recognition of mobile’s importance in the marketing mix and the need for industry support and guidance to create success in the region.

According to CEO at MMA, the creation of MMA local councils worldwide has to show that marketers at global scale are recognizing and embracing the power of mobile, and these people wanted some collaborative works so that mobile becomes an indispensable part of the marketing mix.

In Mexico, MMA launched with members and the support of Banamex and Terra. From Latin America, giant brands and advertising agencies also showed support to include Coca-Cola, Televisa, Ogilvy, Microsoft, Unilever, among others.

The new council is said to offer benefits to its members from the combination of MMA’s global leadership and local knowledge to have an even more productive, successful, and powerful mobile marketing industry in the region.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile Advertising Will Hit $6.6 Billion By 2017

We are forecasting that mobile advertising will be a $6.6 billion market in 2017, a six-year CAGR of 30.4 percent. As we have continually argued, we are in a post-PC era and mobile advertising would seem to be a natural extension of the enormous growth in smartphone use over the past few years. However, as we discuss in our forecast, there are several limiting features of the market. In particular, we believe local ads, the real blockbuster opportunity of the market, are caught in a huge chicken-or-egg market problem, which we don’t think will be solved in the near to medium term.

Why travel advertisers need to think mobile

Earlier this year eMarketer noted more than 12 million travel-minded consumers used a mobile device to book a trip (2011); mobile consumers booking trips via mobile are expected to triple over the next four years, making the mobile channel an important one for travel brands. New research shows how travel-minded consumers are now engaging with mobile content.

3 pieces of advice for including mobile in integrated marketing plans

The word pioneer is overused, but it is accurate to describe those who were the earliest into mobile marketing. Many of their efforts worked and others fell flat. I interviewed more than three dozen of these mavericks for my book, “Mobilized Marketing: Driving Sales, Engagement, and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices.” Their experiences – good and bad – provide lessons that potentially could move your business.

Mobile Marketing, mCommerce To Continue Driving Small Business Growth

Can embracing the mobile platform and its various resources help you grow your business? More than eight out of ten small businesses currently with a mobile presence have already seen increases in new business activity that is directly attributable to the mobile push. Of the 500 small business owners who responded to the survey in question, 14% have a stand-alone mobile website, of which 84% indicated that “they have seen an increase in new business activity due to their mobile marketing efforts.”

Brand Building and the Impact of Social Media

When asked about brand building strategies, marketers in a recent Forrester survey said that search and social media were neck-and-neck. Search won by a nose thanks to business to business marketers who rated social media lower than business to consumer marketers. But overall, it’s clear that social media is having a big impact. Digging a little deeper we see that online video is hot with the B2B crowd (who knew) while mobile is the weapon of choice for B2C.

Mobile is the glue that holds channels together: Mcommerce Summit panelist

NEW YORK – The explosion of mobile over the past few years has enabled brands to tap into the medium as a supplement to their other experiences, building a bridge between them using mobile marketing, according to a panelist at Mobile Commerce Daily’s Mcommerce Summit. Whether consumers are using mobile to find stores, buy or are coerced onto other channels, the medium is certainly helping to drive transactions not only through mobile commerce but in different media. However, mobile is becoming a driver for consumers to buy through other channels, not through the device.

Internet and Mobile Video Audiences Each Grew by 5M During ‘11

TV remains the most popular medium for watching video content, but the number of Americans watching video on the internet and their mobile phones has grown considerably, finds Nielsen [download page] in a May 2012 report. In fact while the number of Americans watching TV dipped by about 4 million from Q1 to Q4 2011 (to 284.4 million), the online video audience grew by 3.5% from 142.4 million to 147.4 million, and the mobile video audience increased 17.5% from 28.5 million to 33.5 million.

Mobile Is the Gateway to Small-Business Owners, SMBs

In March 2012, marketing agency Cargo and Inc. Magazine found the majority (52%) of US small-business owners felt companies did not market to them effectively. Along similar lines, 45% said companies made little effort to understand their business and 43% said B2B marketers did not understand their individual needs as small-business owners.

Confident Samsung targets 60% of India’s smartphone market

New Delhi: Buoyed by a series of successful product launches, Samsung Electronics has said it hopes to increase its share in the 18-19 million unit Indian smartphone market to 60 per cent in the current year. “Our smartphone market share in India was 45 percent at the end of the first quarter of this year. We are looking at capturing 60 percent of the market this year” Country Head, Samsung Mobile and IT, Ranjit Yadav told reporters.

More Than 1 in 3 Mobile Consumers Recently Used a Mobile Wallet

37% of mobile users surveyed in Q1 2012 reported having used a mobile wallet in the previous 90 days, while a further 8% expressed interest in doing so, according to [download page] a JiWire report released in May 2012. This is a significant rise from 11% who reported having used a mobile payment system in Q4 2011. Among Q1 survey respondents who had used a mobile wallet, the leading solution was PayPal (46%), followed by Amazon (29%), and Google Wallet (18%). The remaining 7% used other options.

By end of 2012 more email will be read on mobile than desktop

The need to optimize email for mobile users is even more important than ever given that, according to new research by Return Path, more people will be viewing email on their mobile devices than on webmail or desktop by the end of 2012.

Asia leads in the world’s mobile web traffic

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The Asian region takes an impressive lead in mobile traffic for two consecutive years with data tripled since 2010. Asia grew by more than 192%, from 6.1% to 17.8%, according to Pingdom’s analyzed data fromStatCounter. Based on said study, the figure outstripped that of North America which recorded 8% and Europe at 5.1% of this year.

Africa, on other hand, came second and a bit closer to Asia, with a 155.6% record over the period (14.5%). The UK was leading in Europe with 10.7% while the US got the chart at 8.6%.

Among Asian countries, India had the highest share of mobile traffic wherein total mobile browsing has acquired 48.9%. The top 10 in the record chart, however, is dominated by African countries, but Brunei and Laos made their record chart at 34.7% and 35.5%, respectively.

In terms of service most users are getting in their handsets in both Asia and Africa, the study revealed that most users in India and China were encumbered with 2G networks, despite IDC’s recent prediction pointing China to lead the worldwide market for smartphone shipments by end of the year, while India to leapfrog the UK in the next four years.

Small business sector keeps growing with mobile push

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Asked if embracing to the mobile platform and its various resources could help their business grow, 8 out of 10 small businesses in America having mobile presence affirmed that mobile push had attributed to the growth of their business, according to the latest Small Business Mobile Survey from web.com. Monitoring to what is dubbed as America’s most important economic sector – small business sector – 14% out of 500 business owners surveyed has revealed having a standalone mobile site, while 84% indicated a business climb due to mobile marketing efforts.

This fact, according to analysts and marketing experts, is a good indicator of mobile’s power to boost business growth. It was stressed that in America, however, a majority of small business owners are yet to invest into mobile commerce and mobile marketing. Time always matters as of when business owners must take action on mobile strategy because the loss of momentum to mobile-sophisticated competitors could leave a fatal blow to companies having underestimated the potential of mobile.

Meanwhile, according to web.com group, consumer behaviors may change as time does, saying “today’s mobile consumers are seamlessly searching, processing, and purchasing via smartphone devices”. And with the increasing number of consumers now searching for local businesses on their mobile devices, it is imperative that businesses must consider investing on mobile presence, in which according to web.com is a huge competitive advantage for small businesses trying to attract local customers.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Bridging the gap with mobile

Mobile is the platform for next generation of advertising. The statistics show the potential, and the industry big wigs agree that this is where the brands should be. Now the big question is not why, but how the brands can get on the mobile platform and make this the part of their brand marketing ecosystem. This was the key point of discussion at the recently concluded Mobile Marketing Association Forum held in Singapore. The market figures show that across the region mobile is the first point of contact for brands with the consumers because this is one device that is always on, and is the prime source of communication for all the consumers. During his presentation at MMAF, Ashutosh Srivastav, CEO, Mindshare Asia said

Global mobile media sales top $100 billion in 2011

2011 was the first year that global consumer spending on media content, apps and services for mobile phones broke through the $100 billion barrier, according to the Global Mobile Media Forecast from Strategy Analytics. Consumers will increase spending on mobile media from $121.8 billion in 2011 to $138.2 billion in 2012, a 13.4% jump, predicts Strategy Analytics, a research and consulting firm. At the same…

Samsung Overtakes Nokia to Become the World’s Biggest Mobile Seller

After 14 years at the top, Nokia (IW 1000/61) has finally been overtaken by Samsung (IW 1000/12)as the world leader in mobile sales. We can’t say we didn’t see this coming. Over the last few months, Nokia has been hit with an avalanche of bad news. Even with its partnership with Microsoft Corp. (IW 500/16) to release the ambitious new Lumia 900 smartphone and the wildly aggressive marketing campaign that accompanied it, the company has found itself unable to capture its share of the market, posting a $1.2 billion loss last quarter.

Hispanics to Spend $500 Million on Mobile Apps in 2012

Hispanics are early adopters of both tablets and smartphones, and also more likely than whites to go online using mobile devices. All of that activity will add up to a sizeable pile of cash for device retailers and app stores in 2012. According to December 2011 research by advisory firm Zpryme, adult US Hispanics will spend $17.6 billion on mobile tech devices in 2012, a 30% increase over the previous year. It also estimates that Hispanics will spend $501.1 million on mobile apps by the end of the year.

Mobile Share of Paid Search Keeps Growing

Recent reports from IgnitionOne and Marin Software indicate that mobile is at the forefront of paid search growth, and the latest quarterly trend report from Performics appears to support mobile’s growth. Looking at its aggregate client base, Performics notes that mobile paid search spend accounted for 17.8% of all paid search spend in March 2012, up from 14.7% in December 2011, and more than triple the 5.1% share it held a year earlier. In fact, in dollar volume, the report notes that spend volume is close to 5 times higher on a year-over-year basis, as advertisers have jumped into the fray to catch this trend. Even so, mobile is not cannibalizing desktop, just growing at a faster pace.

Personalization is key to mobile commerce success

Personalization is not a new concept in marketing, but it is definitely going to be a key factor in the success of mobile commerce. However, marketers need to realize that getting consumers to buy a product or service is not as important as providing a tailored experience that gives them exactly what they want and need. Nowadays, consumers crave contextually relevant and targeted information. Additionally, consumers always have their mobile device with them, and instead of thinking about how to make their next sale, brands and retailers need to focus on personalizing their efforts to better reach their audience.

Unilever’s Dove promotes beauty products through multichannel digital effort

Unilever’s Dove is using mobile advertising to encourage consumers to get involved in a broader digital campaign that promotes healthy skin and the brand’s personal care products. The mobile ads are part of Dove’s “Show us Your Skin” campaign that advocates for real women to submit photos of themselves looking their best with clean, healthy skin. The ads are running within TV Guide’s iPhone application.

Mobile devices and local search: Reaching a tipping point

If you own or run a business that relies on local traffic, you need to pay attention.  The proliferation of connected mobile devices – specifically smartphones, tablets and others such as iPod touch – means your customers and potential customers that are on the go are always connected. No more need for a laptop or desktop to look up your product or service. Forget about the Yellow Pages. We are talking real-time, hyper-local search.

Emerson makes bigger push into mobile with new marketing campaign

Technology and engineering company Emerson’s latest update for its ongoing “It’s Never Been Done Before” marketing campaign includes a much bigger commitment to mobile as the company looks to reach C-level executives who are increasingly attached to their smartphones. The campaign highlights the company’s innovation and engineering expertise in projects around the world. The recent update includes a bigger in-app advertising buy, more mobile video content and a newly optimized mobile site that has been translated into nine languages.

Why are marketers forgetting to optimize their mobile campaigns?

Too many marketers are hopping on the mobile bandwagon without fully considering the consumer experience they are delivering after the call to action. Currently, many brands and marketers are running mobile campaigns that lead consumers to unoptimized landing pages, making them pinch-and-zoom to view the content. This shows that companies are clearly not testing their initiatives and simply just putting them out there.

Mobile Market: Samsung takes over Nokia as world’s top mobile seller

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For the first time, Samsung takes over Nokia from the latter’s reign as world leader in mobile sales after hitting a record at $4.4 billion in first quarter profits and a staggering 267% increase in Smartphone sales. The International Data Corporation (IDC), according to Industry Week, has confirmed the speculation via its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report with regards to Samsung’s lead against Nokia at a wide margin.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II smartphones, accordingly, have had huge contribution to its achievement in mobile sales. For 14 years, Nokia has been dubbed as the world’s top seller but the company was not able to capture its market share after it posted $1.2 billion loss in the last quarter.

From a total of 93.8 million mobile devices shipped last quarter, Samsung is reported to have claimed 23.5% market share against Nokia’s 82.7 shipped units (equivalent to 20.8% market share). Meanwhile, with Nokia’s 14-year record as world leader in mobile sales, the company is convinced, despite its loss, to regain its reign through the rest of the year.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Consumers in Asia eager to adopt location-based services: TNS mobile-marketing study

GLOBAL – For marketers looking to leverage mobile’s popularity, location-based services (LBS) are their best bet, according to TNS. The insights firm’s ‘Mobile Life Study’ found that more than 60 per cent of mobile-phone users worldwide who don’t yet use LBS said they want to. TNS’ annual Mobile Life study explored mobile use among 48,000 people in 58 countries. The study showed that the majority of people around the world recognize the value of sharing their location to benefit from a range of services. Globally, almost 30 per cent of the world’s 6 billion people are using smartphones, and in developed Asia-Pacific countries (which includes Japan, Korea, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand), this figure climbs to over 42 per cent.

MMAF Calls On Marketers To Be More Creative Amid Mobile Media Era

The Mobile Marketing Association Forum Singapore (MMAF) has called on marketers to be more creative as the mobile media takes on a new role in the larger media landscape. Mindshare Asia reminded the audience to look at the mobile media as a central touch point, not as a separate platform.

Are publishers toast on mobile?

Mobile has undoubtedly shifted the way that publishers view their revenue models, but with drops in advertising revenue and media companies not taking advantage of the channel, can publishers survive in the post-PC world?  Print publishers have grappled with how to approach mobile, whether it is with subscription models or advertising, for years. But when it comes down to it, do publishers have a chance in the mobile space or should they just cut their losses?

Marriott exec: 50pc of smartphone bookings happen within 24 hours of check-in

SAN DIEGO – A Marriott International executive at the Mobile Shopping Spring Summit said that the company is seeing a high number of smartphone bookings being made for same-day reservations. During the “So Many Options, So Little Budget — What’s The Best Way To Allocate Your Mobile Marketing Spend?” session, executives spoke about how companies can best incorporate mobile into an overall marketing budget. The session was moderated by Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, Atlanta.

Asia’s e-shopping boom

New data on Asian online shopper behaviour shows the gap is fast closing between emerging and mature markets.  But the biggest shock in the comprehensive survey of 7373 respondents from 14 Asian markets is in the online shopping intentions of people in Thailand and Vietnam.

Mobile adspend to rise

NEW YORK: Mobile advertising expenditure is set to almost double globally this year to reach more than $11bn, a forecast has predicted. Strategy Analytics, the research firm, stated that total media revenues for this medium would hit $149.8bn in 2011, a 17% expansion measured against the previous 12 months. Adspend levels are pegged to rise from $6.3bn to $11.6bn year on year, as brand owners increasingly turn their attention to this channel.

Digitally savvy mobile consumer is the king

At the end of the first day of the Mobile Marketing Association Forum Singapore 2012, the key message to take back is that to make mobile the most popular platform for brand building, the marketers need to understand the important role the tech savvy and always mobile consumer plays today. Interestingly the speakers, while emphasising the importance of mobile also spoke about how the best way to leverage the mobile platform is to look at a converged scenario of mediums and channels rather than as a technology silo.

Black Consumers Active, Engaged on Mobile

Penetration rates now comparable to other groups, but mobile activity remains higher than most. Black consumers became smartphone users early and in large numbers. But they no longer constitute an oversized portion of the smartphone population, as the penetration rate among white consumers has accelerated. Black consumers’ smartphone penetration rate this year will be slightly lower than that of whites and the US population in general, eMarketer estimates, and the gap is expected to widen in the next several years.

Can Publishers Survive in the Post-PC World?

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Mobile is a tiny market but it’s growing quickly, and with Smartphone proliferation that grows in popularity, advertisers in effect made a shift towards mobile to acquire revenue, said lead industry analyst and media specialist Agata Kaczanowska.

In a compiled data from journalism.org, it revealed that mobile made up advertising revenue from newspaper publishers. In fact, 0.9% of digital ad revenue last year was generated from mobile, a factor that shows newspaper’s primary reliance on the web as source of digital revenue.

The mobile ads constituted 0.1% of the total ad revenue in 2011, which although small, represents nearly 2000% year-to-year increase. Many publishers including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times have embraced into digital content with print subscriptions as a way to feed news-hungry consumers.

However, in a 2011 report of the Newspaper Association of America, it disclosed the fall of newspaper advertising revenue by 7.3%. Additionally, the recent digital advertising revenue report from NY Times told same story of publisher’s fall by 10.3% year-over-year.

So, what really was going on?

According to industry analyst, Ms. Kaczanowska, most publishers are still experimenting on subscription models and figuring out what works for them.

And as long as consumers are still overwhelmed to reading editorial content in print, it remains a challenge for publishers to find out where to place their bets.

Meanwhile, eMarketer principal analyst, Noah Elkin, said that as more people adopt the mobile devices in getting information over time, the balance may shift to where the balance of revenue switches to digital and mobile.

In terms of monetization, one of the challenges that many publishers are facing is finding a way to separate mobile as a concrete revenue stream compared to digital, but according to Publicis Modem’s media analyst, the success of brands depends upon the success of translating print content into digital and mobile platforms.

Some mobile experts, on other hand, said that content remains a king so publishers must nail down a strong content strategy; and the money will follow. Personalized content, such as location and browsing history into their digital publications, are also to be considered by publishers, plus the incentives among readers in using the product will benefit both publishers and advertisers.

With consumers digesting news on multiple screens, it is imperative that publishers recognize that content is more than just a one-platform experience, according to Yankee Group’s VP on consumer research.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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AdBoard refreshed and renewed in 2012, new board tests new bylaws

A FEW years shy of 40, the Advertising Board of the Philippines (AdBoard), one of the country’s biggest trade organizations, starts 2012 with a timely reinvention. The advertising landscape is changing fast. Marketing, media, communications and other similar professions are now inextricably in the business model. Staring AdBoard in the face was a decades-old, yawning gap between itself and the industry it was tasked to represent and whose rights it had sworn to uphold.

Consumers Increasingly Marry Mobile Devices With TV

Smartphones, tablets, and TV make good companions, according to various reports released in April 2012. Data from a GfK Knowledge Networks survey indicates that 52% of minutes spent with tablets, and the same percentage with smartphones, are shared with TV viewing. Per aForrester Research report, 85% of tablet owners use their tablets while watching TV. And survey findings from QuickPlay [download page] indicate that 91% of tablet owners have watched a TV program or full-length motive on their tablet, while 57% of mobile subscribers overall are interested in a multiscreen video service.

2012 March Madness Was Very Mobile: Study

To marketers, mobile is a channel for their promotions and branding messages. But no consumers ever pick up their smartphones and go looking for ads; they’re hunting for content, and the marketing trick is to wrap the message around that content. So it’s interesting that the latest report from Millennial Media focuses on how mobile fans used their devices to view the big event of last month, the NCAA basketball championships.

Mobile marketing in growth path

With digital becoming the ‘fashionable’ medium over the past couple of years, marketers are now looking at exploring the various avenues it presents. With the growing acceptance of new technologies, many new possibilites for marketing and ways to reach the TG have emerged. The mobile has gone from being the traditional third screen to the first screen for many, especially the youngsters.

Video, Social Boost US Mobile Content Consumption

One-third of US population will use social networking and video on mobile devices by 2016. With smartphone users expected to make up over half of US mobile users by next year, content consumption on mobile devices is also on the rise, including video viewing and social networking.

iPad Found Accounting for 89% of Mobile Shopping Revenue

The iPad accounts for nearly two-thirds of all mobile shopping sessions, and an impressive 89% of all mobile shopping revenue, says RichRelevance in April 2012 study results. With mobile’s share of total retail climbing to 4.6% in March 2012 (from 1.9% in April 2011), this means that the iPad now accounts for more than 4% of total retail revenue. Meanwhile, other iOS devices make up 4% of the mobile revenue share, with other mobiles holding the remaining 7%. The study found that all mobiles combined now account for 9% of total online shopping sessions.

Luxury retailers adapt to mobile age

A study conducted earlier this year by The Luxury Institute showed that 60% of high net worth individuals own smartphones, and of those, 67% used them to shop. 80% had downloaded an app.

Study: TV + Mobile = Results

Brands, if you’re looking for more bang from your video buck, look to mobile. That is the key takeaway from a new report out from Nielsen and AdColony. Through the study research found that combining television advertising with mobile helped to improve brand favorability and recall as well as purchase intent metrics.

Gartner: Worldwide PC Shipments Grow 1.9 Percent in Q1 2012

According to preliminary results by Gartner Inc., worldwide PC shipments totaled 89 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 1.9% increase from the first quarter of 2011, when shipments reached 87.3 million units. These results exceed Gartner’s earlier projections of a 1.2% decline for the quarter. ”The results were mixed depending on the region, as we saw the EMEA region perform better than expected, while Asia/Pacific performed below expectations, in part because of slow growth in India and China,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “While the PC industry has high expectations for strong growth in the emerging markets,…

Global mobile health market worth $8B by 2018

A recent report from Global Data pegged the global mHealth market as having a $500 million value in 2010 that will top $8 billion by 2018. The research firm argues that the rise of mobile health has been partially encouraged by the global financial crisis, which led to a focus on finding cost efficiencies in the system in addition to improved outcomes and quality of care.

Mobile marks a record on Internet Ad Revenue, Mobile Ads the future

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The 2011 report on Internet Ad Revenue marks the year of mobile with impressive growth, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The research revealed the mobile listed for the first time as a standalone category for good reason. Accordingly, the growth in mobile advertising was the fastest of all IAB’s category, up 149% to $1.6 billion in year 2011; and recently, it’s accounting to 5% of all internet ad revenue compared to email (1%), sponsorship and rich media (same at 4%), while search is the largest category at 46.5%.

The IAB stressed that due to the proliferation of tablets and Smartphones, the tremendous growth in mobile will continue as said screens become more crucial to marketing mix.

Meanwhile, the PwC US said that by combining some of the best features of the Internet, together with portability and location-based technology, mobile advertising allows marketers to deliver in timely, targeted, relevant, and local advertisements never been possible before. Hence, it is expected that strong growth continues coming with mobile advertising.

In a separate report by Jana, the mobile ads in some emerging markets are seen to be the future. The report has revealed an impressive penetration of mobile ads in four emerging markets, like China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil taking the leads to make up two-fifths of the global GDP; while China is viewed to shape a billion dollar mobile advertising market in the next four years.

According to the report, the world has 5.3 billion mobile subscribers, which means 77% of the world’s population uses phone. The majority of those users — 3.8 billion or 73% of the group — live in emerging economies. Yet mobile advertising dollars spent around the world do not begin to compete with traditional platforms or Internet ads.