New metrics are needed to measure potential mobile advertising business, said Roger Entner, Nielsen vice president of research and insights. Because the worlds of advertising, Internet and mobile communications are rapidly converging, we need to change how we measure these businesses and also the metrics we use, he said.
Entner said pure valuations, and even revenue numbers, yield limited insights into the true performance. While mobile carriers typically use average revenue per user (APRU) to compare revenue opportunities, mobile advertising — which he believes is as good or better than the Internet as an advertising vehicle — can also monetize the business at least as well.