Bango (AIM: BGO), the mobile payment company, today is launching its second mobile Web analytics tool. The first one, launched in February, was aimed at advertisers to determine the effectiveness of mobile ad campaigns. The one being launched today is for mobile Web site owners, who simply want to know how many visitors are coming to their site. Adam Kerr, Bango VP: "What we found is that people didn't know how many people come to their site. It startled us that people didn't know that, but they were working with estimates." Often times, companies established averages by patching together information from hosting companies and advertising partners. "It's pretty inaccurate information." To track users, Bango uses the same technology it developed for mobile payments, which must be able to recognize the correct person in order to charge the right account. In the same way, they can identify a unique visitor when they visit a site. In order for it to work, the site's owner must place a piece of code on the site. Users to that site are then issued a unique ID, like a fingerprint, that can be recognized each time they come back—even if they change phones.
Of course, the big promise of mobile is that Web site owners and advertisers will be able to use specific information about the user—like location or age or gender—to make the ad more profitable. However, Kerr said they found in a study that owners for now showing interest in the basics. Out of 550 owners surveyed, they found: 80 percent were most interested in knowing the number of unique visitors to their website; 71 percent were interested in conversion rates and the effectiveness of mobile marketing; 54 percent were interested in both handset information and location information; and only 41 percent wanted to know what carrier the visitor was using. For example, right now Bango is only reporting a person's location by country, not state or city. "It's still one step at a time...I think geo-location is very important, but if we had it today, a lot of people aren't ready for that information yet." Analytic tools like these are an important part of the industry. Other companies, like Admob, claim to have similar information, but Bango maintains that its information is more independent because it is not also trying to sell the customer advertising.
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