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...biggest barrier may turn out to be consumers, who could become hostile if their personal phones are suddenly barraged with pitches. Nearly four out of five Americans surveyed by market-research firm Forrester Research last year said they found the idea of ads on their handsets "annoying." Network operators, wary of getting caught up in spam wars like those that plague the Internet, say they're concerned about keeping subscribers happy. "Unwanted or unsolicited text-message spam to our customers' handsets is unacceptable," said Steve Zipperstein, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, after the U.S. carrier in February successfully sued tour company...
...perhaps, but corporate spending on handset advertising is expected to soar to $13.9 billion by 2011, according to marketing-research firm eMarketer. The field got a boost on March 27, when Yahoo! became the first major Internet firm to introduce a mobile-ad network, a service that allows companies to more easily place text, display and video ads on mobile-phone websites in 19 countries. Also leading the way are blue-chip brands including BMW, McDonald's and Proctor & Gamble, companies that are experimenting with mobile-marketing campaigns to find cost-effective ways to tap the medium. When BMW launched...
...thousands of young, urban women via text messages. Nearly 10% of recipients redeemed their coupons by showing the message to store clerks. That's a far higher response rate than the average 0.2% rate for e-mail ads, says David Turchetti, head of the Shanghai-based mobile-marketing firm 21 Communications. Turchetti says more than 9 out of 10 people open and read unsolicited text messages. "With e-mail ads, you're lucky if 20% do so," he says...
Like many 5-year-olds, California's Vycon corporation is going through a growth spurt. A developer of mechanical energy-storage devices (essentially batteries made of flywheels rather than chemicals), the firm is beefing up production of some of its gadgets tenfold this year to quench demand. To pay for such expansion, Vycon's executives decided to sell shares to the public. Too tiny to trade on New York City's NASDAQ, the company focused instead on another market catering to ambitious upstarts like Vycon. London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) was a "global market for small companies," says Vycon...
...main market, a company normally needs a three-year business record, a minimum market cap and shareholder approval for big acquisitions or disposals; NASDAQ and NYSE have similar hurdles. But AIM's quality control is outsourced to 85 so-called Nominated Advisers, or Nomads. Generally accounting firms or financial management companies, Nomads scrutinize a firm's executive staff, business model and performance before deciding whether it can list. To a degree, NYSE's Thain is right: AIM has very few prescriptive requirements for listing - the Nomad's own judgment...