Mobile analytics service challenges Google

IN A move that challenges the might of Goggle and Yahoo, plucky Brit firm , Bango, has launched an analytics service that targets the mobile web and provides advertisers with independent data on surfers's behaviour.

According to Anil Malhotra, marketing vp with Bango, the classic Google web 2.0 approach to online advertising doesn't translate into the mobile world.

"Very few handsets have a browser that accepts cookies," he explained. "Even then some of those handsets lose their cookies when the phone is switched off."

The kind of information which mobile advertisers need is also very different from the traditional web. Bango can differentiate, for example, between a standard T-Mobile user and somebody on an MVNO like Virgin which operates over T-Mobile's network.

The service can drill right down as far as what kind of make and model of handset a subscribers is using to access a particular page on a mobile web site. It can even tell if a subscriber can access adult services.

Bango's approach effectively relies on the mobile site owner channelling traffic through Bango's servers. Malhotra insists that users won't notice any difference

There are some mobile ad aggregators – like Admob - who can offer similar kind of statistics to Bango – but only across their own services. Bango is totally independent and so can track user behaviour across multiple web sites.

Malhotra reckons that the big advertisers are still just sticking a toe in the water when it comes to the mobile web. For that reason, his firm won't be charging for the service until traffic rises above 10,000 hits per month.

The advantage Bango enjoys is that its technology is already proven, being based around subscriber identification which is required by its secure online payments service.

If advertisers like Bango's approach, it will give them greater flexibility in how they mount online campaigns that target mobile users – avoiding the situation where just a handful of players dominate the traditional online advertising sector. µ