It is believed that the telecoms companies see the creation of their own search engine as an aid to retaining a greater share of advertising revenue. This is due to the fact that the combined clout of the businesses would secure a bigger portion of available advertising revenue in return for exposing the search engine's operator and its advertisers to a much wider subscription base.
One of the options to be discussed is to ask an existing search engine - possibly Google or Yahoo! - to power search services across all the networks, although such collaboration will mean shared revenues from add-on services. Another point for discussion is likely to concern the creation of a new white-label service which would utilise a single advertising and technical team, which mobile networks could then apply to their own brand.
Taking into account that mobile telecoms businesses are now being faced with declining revenues alongside cheaper calls, it's no surprise that the mobile industry is trying to attain a greater share of advertising revenue by developing its own service - while securing a slice of the search advertising market along the way.
The UK's main operators - Orange, owned by France Telecom, O2, part of Spanish network Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Vodafone - account for around 600 million mobile users worldwide, including 15.9 million users in the UK alone.
A UK executive at one of the companies involved told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper:
"There is a big play in mobile search that we need to be part of, and we are exploring those options at a very high level."
While Google and Yahoo! have already been active in the telecoms market, it is unclear what the implications are likely to be for existing deals between networks. Google has already signed deals with Vodafone and T-Mobile, as well as with Hutchison Whampoa's 3 Network and China Mobile, while Yahoo! also have deals with Vodafone and 3. Google services already come pre-loaded on Samsung-made handsets and trials to sell sponsored advertiser links are underway. Futhermore, Yahoo! already features sponsored links on their mobile search services.
In the UK alone, it is expected that at least 20 per cent of subscribers will have access to mobile internet at broadband speeds by the end of 2007, prompting suggestions that there will be a massive increase in the use of mobile search. Mobile search may be seen by some analysts as potentially more lucrative for both users and advertisers than equivalent desktop-based search services due to the ability to make results geographically relevant.
