Google’s Bet on Mobile Data

Google’s GEO Eric Schmidt believes that data is the engine of the mobile ecosystem and global commerce in general. According to Schmidt, consumer desire for content and mobile’s convenience make it the source of the next wave of online innovation.

“There’s literally so much data on telecommunications networks that people want, that getting those provisions, searching and so forth, is a very big challenge,” Schmidt said on Thursday at the eG8 conference in Paris. “What’s growing fastest now is the amount of data that is available. Of course this is good for Google, because that’s a search problem and that’s what we do. There’s a good video problem, a good access problem, a good user-generated content problem. What’s interesting is that when you add the power of these mobile devices, they are going faster than PCs. When we look at the future we see these devices, connected over these powerful networks, to these back-end cloud computing services.”

Schmidt, perhaps hinting at the then impending announcement of the Google Wallet, said that “today in our industry the most interesting developments are the new, broad platforms. The development of these platforms is the way that great economic wealth is created in the world today. The fastest path to wealth is the construction of these digital platforms where others are dependent on you and you are an important part of the knowledge or commerce economy.”

Schmidt said that data and platform innovations are now happening in “a couple of years as opposed to a decade” and that “well-run companies” with platforms “immediately globalize” their platforms to meet the demands of the international market.

“Platforms, mobile and otherwise, solve problems,” staid Schmidt. “For example in banking, there is a chip call the NFC chip that has something called a secure element and with it banks around the world can conduct modern secure banking with more security than your debit card or credit card.” Virtually all the banks and financial institutions have agreed on this standard, said Schmidt and Google is “busy implementing this technology for delivery later this year.”

https://staging.digiday.com/?p=4592

More in Media

YouTube is under fire again, this time over child protection

Adalytics Research asks, ‘Are YouTube advertisers inadvertently harvesting data from millions of children?’

Illustration of a puzzle that spells out the word 'media.'

Media Briefing: Publishers pump up per-subscriber revenue amid ad revenue declines

Publishers’ Q2 earnings reveal digital advertising is still in a tight spot, but digital subscriptions are picking up steam.

Lessons for AI from the ad-tech era: ‘We’re living in a memory-less world’

Experts reflect how the failures of social media and online advertising can help the industry improve the next era of innovation.