Mobile Commerce has emerged as the leading supplier of monetised mobile search. It has developed services that are deployed on mobile portals. The services have been developed to create a rich geo-spatial database, using content from leading brands and smaller innovative suppliers. An alternative is for free text search or a taxonomy approach.

Operators have a number of different bearers to allow access to their services and Mobile Commerce created Short Messaging Service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Third Generation (3G) front-ends for their products. This has led to the company winning awards and citations for the quality and usefulness of its services.

Mobile Commerce started working with Overture – now owed by Yahoo! – on monetised mobile search in the summer of 2002. The concept is simple: provide a classification of services that a user can select, allow advertisers to bid in real-time and return the set of results to the handset.

The first services launched in summer 2004. Whenever a search term is entered into a search box, a decision is made on where the search can be monetised. This means the search result can leave the customer on-portal, buying from the operator’s preferred partners or, if there are no suitable services, the user is taken off-portal to buy goods at a non-preferred partner.

Operators benefit financially from browsing charges, a share of the advertising revenues and through their usual revenue share arrangements when a customer is billed using a Mobile Terminate (MT) message.

The service was recently extended to the US and looks set to be extended into other European markets and non-operator portals during 2006.

“Off-portal mobile search is set to take off” says Steve Page, CEO, Mobile Commerce. “As operators relax their walled garden approach, it will be off-portal discovery & payment that can be monetised, with the operator sharing in the entire value chain.”