GSMA and Comscore Announce UK Launch of Mobile Media Metrics

16 Million UK Mobile Users Viewed Nearly 7 Billion Pages of Online Content via their Mobile Browser in Preliminary Data for December 2009

4 February 2010, London: The GSMA and Comscore, Inc., in partnership with operators O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK, today announced the official UK launch of the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) product, a pioneering census-level solution for mobile media reporting. Taking irreversibly anonymised mobile Internet usage data from all five UK mobile operators, the service will provide comprehensive insights into mobile media consumption, empowering brands and agencies to plan effective and focused campaigns for the mobile medium.

“On behalf of our operator partners, Comscore and the GSMA, we are excited to be launching Mobile Media Metrics in the UK, our first market, and we anticipate that it will accelerate growth in the mobile advertising market,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. “The underlying principle of Mobile Media Metrics is to deliver valuable and actionable reporting tools to the media industry, while respecting the privacy of individuals. Access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing mobile as a legitimate advertising medium, and Mobile Media Metrics is a critical element in advancing this process.”

The GSMA Mobile Media Metrics service is based on anonymised, census-level data for mobile Internet usage across mobile networks, which is augmented with demographic data that has been collected with the consent of a representative sample of mobile Internet users. The Mobile Media Metrics service provides a rich, aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behaviour, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics, such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and device types and features.

“The initiative undertaken by the GSMA and Comscore is a great step forward for mobile media,” said Richard Foan, Managing Director of ABCe and Chair of JICWEBS. “Based on ABCe’s independent validation of Mobile Media Metrics, advertisers, agencies and media owners can rest assured that key metrics are compliant with and endorsed by the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS).”

Based on pre-production data*, 16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009, viewing a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spending an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month. The top 10 sites accounted for 70 per cent of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month.

*As the operators ramp up to full delivery of anonymised data to Comscore, the MMM database has been populated with a subset of December data – “pre-production data” – from three operators. Pre-production data for January from four operators will be delivered later in February 2010, and we anticipate delivery of full production data from all five operators early in Q2 2010.

Mobile Internet usage is accelerating, driven largely by the rise of smartphone devices, which are now used by one fifth of the total UK mobile subscriber base, according to Comscore’s MobiLens survey. Significantly, while smartphone users represent just 29 per cent of the UK total mobile Internet audience, they accounted for 47 per cent of total page views, and 51 per cent of the total time spent online in December 2009.

GSMA MMM Core Reports is the foundation of Comscore’s GSMA MMM suite of reports on mobile browsing. Full production data for the MMM Core Reports will be released in March 2010 based on February data. The GSMA and Comscore are planning a full complement of additional MMM products to measure mobile usage of applications, search, reach and frequency, ad tracking, and ad effectiveness, as well as linkage of the MMM database to Kantar Media’s Target Group Index (TGI). The MMM service will also be expanded to include Wi-Fi traffic through site-centric measurement of publishers’ and ad networks’ sites, using Comscore’s MMX 360 solution, for a de-duplicated view of the online and mobile Internet.

Supporting quotes:
“Mobile Media Metrics is a response to industry demand and is designed as an enabling service for all the players in the ecosystem, not just operators. We are very excited about the potential of this service, as a quantifiable and valuable metrics tool, to really drive mobile forward,” said John Kelly, Head of Vodafone Marketing Solutions, Vodafone Group.

“T-Mobile firmly believes in the open internet and has been a pioneering force in opening up internet access on mobile phones since 2005. The development of mobile as a media channel is the next logical step. Customers appreciate advertising only when it is relevant to them and better measurement and planning makes this more likely to happen,” said Martin Peters, Head of Mobile Search and Advertising, T-Mobile.

“Media planners and buyers have been crying out for more accountability, efficiency and targeted opportunities in mobile. The launch of Mobile Media Metrics will help to provide accurate and targeted measurement and we fully support this. Such data is crucial to realising the full potential of mobile to deliver highly personalised brand communications to customers,” said Shaun Gregory, Managing Director of O2 Media.

"This is a major milestone in the growth of mobile as a media and communications channel. We expect benefits for the whole industry - it will help businesses make decisions to deliver efficiency, growth and customer enhancements," said Steve Ricketts, Head of Mobile Marketing and Payment Services, Orange UK.

“Network operators have long sought the independent verification which will allow them to monetise mobile Internet usage on their networks. Media buyers have also been excited about mobile for years, but have never had access to the independent statistics to justify large ad spend; hopefully Mobile Media Metrics will change all this. 3 is very excited about the opportunity provided by this initiative and we look forward to helping media buyers generate a higher ROI through the use of mobile advertising,” said Neil Andrews, Head of Portal Advertising at 3 UK.

“You could say that the last 10 or so years have been the time of the internet. I think it is very possible to imagine the next 10 years being the time of mobile, the mobile internet. What advertisers are looking to do is understand how many people of what kind are engaging with this medium and how deeply they are engaging, and they tailor their expenditure and their budgets to that data. Mobile Media Metrics promises to give advertisers exactly that kind of data,” said Bob Wootton, ISBA, The Voice of British Advertisers.

"Now that this measurement is available we will absolutely be looking to work with our agencies to ensure that they understand how mobile can play a role within the communications activity," said Michael Smith, Central Office of Information (COI), U.K. Government.

“As with any grown up medium, in order for mobile to truly be accountable and to flourish, it needs to be measurable. What we are really excited about is the granular level of data that this service is going to provide. It will allow us to understand in fine detail the consumer journey from start to finish,” said Neil Mortensen, Opera & Joint Chair of the Media Research Group (MRG).

“I welcome Mobile Media Metrics. I think it has been a long time in construction. It is something the industry has been crying out for. It is something that we at Thomson Reuters want; it is what the advertising community wants; and I think it’s a great step forward,” said Tim Faircliff, Thomson Reuters & Vice-Chair of Association of Online Publishers (AOP).

About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA is focused on innovating, incubating and creating new opportunities for its membership, all with the end goal of driving the growth of the mobile communications industry.

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the new online portal for the mobile communications industry, at www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at www.gsmworld.com.

For more information on Mobile Media Metrics please visit: www.gsmworld.com/mmm

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information on GSMA MMM products and services, please visit the Comscore website for:

Press contacts:
Daniel Lowther
+44 7747 636 687
press@gsm.org

Ayaan Mohamud
Comscore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 203-111-1758
worldpress@comscore.com