Tech startup MCN eyes market niche next to Google

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Mobile Content Networks Inc. (MCN) hopes to keep its market niche in mobile search, despite global players like Google and Yahoo expanding fast into wireless space, MCN's chief executive told Reuters.

Marc Bookman said the attractive new market, which is getting its revenues from placing advertisements to search results pages, is set to grow 10-fold by 2010 to up to $3 billion as consumption of wireless data and mobile content continues to accelerate.

As networks grow faster and most mobile phone handsets now come with Web browsers, Internet companies are moving aggressively to bring search, e-mail, mapping and other familiar online services to phones.

"In spite of the fact that Google will gain market share for search in mobile, many other brands out there will provide a large percentage of the mobile-initiated searches," Bookman said in an interview.

The technology of MCN, which has raised $16 million from venture firms, is used by those brand-owners like telecom operators who can control client relationships tighter in the wireless world than in the Internet world.

Bookman said the company's different data collecting technology, based on the splintered nature of information on the wireless Internet, should help MCN keep its niche next to search engines of major rivals, which are suited better to traditional Internet.

MCN also has a strong position in the first major mobile search market in Japan, where top local telecom operator NTT DoCoMo uses its technology.

More than 90 percent of cellphone users in Japan have tried mobile search, compared with less than 10 percent in most of the world.

"Japan is way ahead, then there is Korea in the middle, and then the rest," Bookman said.

The mobile Web promises to offer a handier way than bulky computers for many consumers to connect to the Internet. In emerging markets it will be for millions of people the first Internet connection.

"We believe we are going to see a period of sustained growth for the next 5-7 years. The developing markets are all starting to grow quickly. They do not have PCs, they really rely on mobile devices," Bookman said.

"For search to reach mass market it has to be very simple for users, in 2 to 3 clicks you have to find what you're looking for. By fourth click you have lost almost everybody," he said.