Bebo to outsource ad sales for its new mobile offering

by Andrew McCormick, Media Week 05-Jun-07

Bebo is seeking a sales house to handle advertising on its mobile offering, due to launch this summer.

The social network has just completed the process of bringing its online
ad sales in-house, but intends to outsource mobile sales from
launch.

The company's decision to run mobile ads on its service is part of a

two-pronged mobile strategy that also involves an exclusive partnership

deal with mobile operator Orange.

Joanna Shields, international president of Bebo, said: "The
functionality at the moment means that you can browse Bebo on your
mobile, but we're looking to optimise that. We're also talking to a lot
of partners about mobile ad sales."

Bebo has unveiled details of its Orange partnership to Media Week.
Orange will be the only carrier of the service for three months and the
companies intend to partner on a range of products to be launched in
that time. Bebo-branded tariffs and pay-as-you-go SIM cards will be part
of the social network's tie-up with Orange.

Bebo's rival MySpace has signed a similar UK mobile deal with Vodafone.
Both are due to launch in the next few months. Facebook and Piczo are
also developing mobile versions of their websites as they too seek a cut
of revenues from mobile social networking, which will be worth £6.86bn by 2011, according to joint research from the Informa Media and
Telecoms and the Mobile Entertainment Forum.

Earlier this month Bebo put in place an online sales team, after hiring
staff from internet rivals MSN, Orange and Ask.com.

Bebo had used ad sales network eType, but has gradually upped its
presence in the UK. Bebo's online ad strategy includes a rule of one ad
per page.

Shields said that the mobile version will reflect Bebo's aim of offering
unobtrusive advertising.

Bebo is the most popular community site in the UK, ahead of MySpace,
YouTube and Facebook, according to research company Hitwise. Bebo
accounts for 19.1% of UK market share in the sector compared to
MySpace's 17.2%, YouTube's 9.7% and Facebook's 6.6%.