Data is Free

Mobile network operators in the U.K. are preparing to sell behavioral user data to help advertisers target mobile ad campaigns more effectively.

Mobile industry body the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Association) has proposed a measurement process that provides anonymous audience metrics and aggregated user behavior data, which it hopes will stimulate the uptake of mobile advertising and create an ad market akin to that of the fixed Internet.

The GSMA has formed a task force comprising major European operators, including Telefonica, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile International and 3. It now hopes to launch a fully audited mobile measurement service in the second half of 2009, alongside three further working groups, one each for advertisers, media and advertising agencies, and publishers

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This is a brilliant idea. Working together the carriers can (a) mitigate the competitive privacy concerns while (b) actually providing enough data to be useful to advertisers.

From a strategic issue the biggest problem has always been carrier reluctance to be the first to offer behavioral data due to the likely response from their competition, as well as bearing the brunt of the privacy backlash. By banding together the problem is solved.

From a tactical point of view the carriers' aggregated data will prove far more valuable than a single source of data. It also places the carriers in the driver's seat for dictating the terms by which networks and advertisers buy their data. It will be fascinating to see how the carriers elect to monetize this asset, which seems tailor made for an exchange/auction mechanism