Google's mobile plans: of Omar Hamoui, AdMob, and Nexus One

Posted on 28-12-2009

While Omar Hamoui started as a struggler to support his wife and children, he is now all set to be worth as much as a whooping $750 Million, thanks to a planned Google acquisition.
As Google aims to extend its reach of advertisements from mostly PC-based to a more widely used cell phone base by acquiring AdMob, Omar Hamoui is surely a happy man.
Omar Hamoui achieved a breakthrough in advertising by setting up a system for advertisements on mobile devices. Though it may look quite plain and simple, it was quite a task, considering the strict restrictions wireless carriers had imposed on what users could see on their phones. "It took a lot of guts because (the carriers) were the gatekeepers of the industry... Back then, it was sort of like if you said no to the Godfather. Bad things could happen," says Rich Wong, an investor in AdMob and also a board member in the company. AdMob’s great potential was fully tapped only when Apple introduced its breakthrough device, the iPhone, and the app market which followed: One of the primary reasons why some application developers give away the application for free, or just by charging a small amount of money, is that they get revenue from AdMob’s ad network.

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Google is one of the biggest players in the online advertising field, drawing $20 billion in revenue from internet ads. Recently, Google has shown immense interest in mobile technology, giving us Android and the upcoming Nexus One. AdMob has been able to deliver 140 billion ads on mobile web sites and applications, which made analysts estimate its annual revenue to be anywhere around $45-$60 Million. Even though that’s less than the revenue generated by Google in a day, Google believes that the exponential growth in mobile users will justify its acquisition. The deal will require the approval of The Federal Trade Commission, as they seek to inspect how this deal would affect competition in the mobile ad market, which is expected to quadruple in size during the next four years.