Via the 7th Mass Media Blog, I came across this impressive set of revenue numbers for the service Shazam:
Shazam now has 35 million users in 60 countries and they get 1 million "tags" (music identifiation requests) per day. ..... Even if we say their global average cost is 30 US cents per tag, that works out to a very impressive 109 million dollars in annual revenues.
Shazam represents a different paradigm for mobile search. It is what I called 'point, snap and retrieve'. On the mobile, a user doesn't want to see a list of results, they want answers to what they are looking for. They also doesn't want to enter long search terms, they want to click a button (like snapping a picture) and get the results.
As I wrote about it here, the concept of Shazam is applicable many niche areas. If we look at how search in Internet has splintered into many forms of specialized search like vertical search, real time search, people search etc, I believe the same trend will happen to mobile information retrieval.
Here are the some of the examples currently in the market. They are the forerunners of what I believe to be a very big opportunity in the future.
Product Search for CDs, Books and Games
When you see a book, CD, DVD, or game at a friend's house you want to look up and bookmark instantly, fire up SnapTell Explorer on your iPhone and take a photo of it..... SnapTell automatically looks up your item and gives you links to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Wikipedia, and straight-up search engines so you can compare prices and find out more about it.
Logo search
When a brand-specific SnapTag with a call to action is placed on an advertisement, consumers can use their mobile camera phones to access branded content, timely information, promotional opportunities, discounts, retail location finders, sales opportunities and other branded interactions.
Font Search
Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Whip out your iPhone and snap a photo, and WhatTheFont for iPhone will identify that font in seconds!
Bird/Tree/Nature Search (idea)
That’s what I want to be able to do. Identify a tree or a flower simply by pointing a phone at it and tapping “tag”. Identify a bird simply by letting the phone hear its call and tapping “tag”.
What other services or ideas have you come across that users the concept of Shazam for image?
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