Mobile Banking on the Rise

Josh Catone — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:52:11 -0800

Earlier this month we reported on a survey that revealed that 48% of online banking customers between the ages of 18 and 34 would be interested in using "secure gadgets for personal banking" if their bank offered them. More than a quarter of bank customers would consider switching to another bank if it took better advantage of web 2.0 technologies. While that survey was flawed in some ways, there is another access point to banking information that customer may want more than secure widgets: mobile.

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]]> One third of the world's largest banks are planning to launch mobile services in the next 1-2 years, according to a February 2008 survey. In the US, 53% of banks plan mobile services roll outs over the next two years. And it's easy to see why. The Pew Internet & American Life Project Online Shopping report (PDF) from February found that 39% of Americans are doing their banking on the Internet, and analysts predict that mobile banking will grow to 884 million users worldwide by 2012.

With mobile usage on the rise one major US bank launched a suite of mobile banking services last year. A year later, Bank of America's mobile site has a million unique active user accounts. On peak days, Bank of America sees 100,000 users sign into its mobile services, with more use coming from mobile-savvy city dwellers (where cellular data and wifi coverage are generally better). 80% of the bank's mobile users are under the age of 45, and Bank of America reports that 2/3rds of users are under the age of 35.

Not surprisingly, the most popular devices are smart phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile-based phones. With some analysts expecting iPhone sales to triple this holiday season, we're likely to see the up trend in online banking continue. Where do you do your banking? Let us know in the comments.

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Writer's Strike Helps Online Ad Sales

Josh Catone — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:07:59 -0800

Even with the home mortgage meltdown in the US theatening to pull the econonmy into a recession, analysts feel confident that the online ad market will remain healthy. "We believe the secular growth of the Internet will enable Internet fundamentals to outperform," wrote Piper Jaffray senior research analysts Aaron Kessler and Gene Munster in a report last Monday. "Whereas Internet advertising budgets were the first to be cut during the market crash in 2000, we believe the proven high ROI of online advertising today will make online advertising resilient even with a recession in the United States."

But whether the Internet remains recession-proof or not, the mortgage crisis will affect the world of web advertising in very real ways.

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]]> Last week, Larry Dignan pointed out that the recent $4 billion take over of Countrywide by Bank of America will be felt in the wallets of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. Countrywide, it seems, has been the web's second most prolific advertiser over the past two months, spending over $57 million in November, and $38 million in December.

"It’s highly unlikely that Bank of America will spend so lavishly on online advertising," writes Dignan. "Simply put, Countrywide’s penchant for advertising will disappear. To Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis Countrywide’s willy nilly ad spending will just be more fat to cut."

The good news for Google, et. al., is that help may be on the way from an unlikely source: the Hollywood writers strike. As the strike drags on, and original primetime TV content dries up, advertisers may begin to jump ship for other mediums. Chrysler, the third-largest automaker in the US, already has, choosing to run ads on sports and the Internet instead of primetime television.

The strike "is changing the whole broadcast model," said Chrysler marketing cheif Deborah Wahl Meyer. While analysts don't think Chrysler's move to jump ship from primetime TV advertising is an indication of a television industry in crisis, it could certainly signal the potential start of a trend. Many striking writers have already turned to the Internet as a place to ply their trade and with advertisers on board, the strike could hasten a paradigm shift in the media landscape that sees content shift from television to web distribution.

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Mobile Banking on the Rise

Writer's Strike Helps Online Ad Sales