Swiss providers make greater inroads into mobile advertising

Several companies in Switzerland are currently experimenting with how to earn money with advertising on cell phones. Activemobile has been offering banner advertising on mobile Internet portals since August. The Goldbach Media subsidiary in Küsnacht places electronic advertising posters from companies such as Fiat and Johnson & Johnson on nine different portals. According to boss Mike Weber, the initial results are promising. Visitors have clicked on the banners three to five times more often than is usual on the Internet, he told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. So far, Swisscom has been the most active cell phone provider. It has recently started experimenting with music videos that are cross-financed with advertising but are not free. In the summer, it launched a trial with free films with advertising in the opening and closing credits. Swisscom does not want to say how often the short films have been downloaded. Nevertheless, it considers the trial a success. After all, hardly any users were bothered by the advertising, spokesman Sepp Huber told the Tages-Anzeiger (
see).