IBM, Microsoft, Google, Verizon

With FTC’s Blessing, Google and Apple Poised to Dominate Mobile Advertising

The FTC announced on Friday that it has closed its investigation into Google's proposed $750 million acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob, which is now expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.

May 21, 2010

Wired - The scariest thing about Apple is Google.

When iPhone OS devices are criticized for being too-locked-down, people seek freedom in Google Android. When Apple TV sucks, they turn to Google TV. And now, Apple’s acquisition of advertising firm Quattro Wireless has paved the way for Google’s purchase of AdMob, which the Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that it has approved.

Apple’s ownership of mobile advertising firm iAd gives it advantages over any other advertiser wishing to place ads on iPhone OS devices such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple, for instance, can harvest data about how such ads interact with items for sale in the iTunes store that other ad networks cannot access.

Now, with the FTC’s blessing, Google will be able to do the same on Android OS devices, including phones, netbooks, and upcoming tablets and set-top boxes.

“As a result of Apple’s entry (into the market), AdMob’s success to date on the iPhone platform is unlikely to be an accurate predictor of AdMob’s competitive significance going forward, whether AdMob is owned by Google or not,” said the commission in a statement made Friday.

The FTC voted 5-0 to close its investigation into the $750 million deal, which will involve Google issuing stock to AdMob at some point over the next few weeks.

“[Google and Admob] have economies of scale that give them a major advantage over smaller rivals in the business,” ceded the FTC. “These concerns, however, were outweighed by recent evidence that Apple is poised to become a strong competitor in the mobile advertising market.”

Now that mobile advertising has its Coke and Pepsi, any potential RC Cola is going to have one heck of a time breaking into the market.

That said, some competition does exist within the mobile ad market, which is still in its infancy. Neither Apple nor Google bars third-party advertisers from advertising on their devices, and app developers — and cellphone network providers themselves — have plenty of opportunities to serve ads based on location, usage habits and other factors, which is likely why the FTC backed off.

That doesn’t stop Google from being scarily omnipresent in our lives. Depending on your usage, it potentially knows what you search for on the web, what you write in your e-mails, what you watch on YouTube, what your friends say to you in voicemails, what you do with your smartphone, where you are, and soon, what you watch on your television, and can serve ads across all of those platforms accordingly.