m-spatial provide white label local search for the likes of Orange, O2 and Vodafone, as well as personal navigation devices. They’ve just announced a list of the terms users are most frequently searching for on their mobiles. While they don’t release actual figures, monthly searches are in the millions, so the numbers are statistically significant.
One of the true-isms of location based services is that most people spend most of their time in an area they know - in other words, where they live or where they work. This is one of the theories about why “Find My Nearest” services have never really taken off in a meaningful way. I would add that that this is certainly an argument that I’ve subscribed to and promoted for the last 7 years or so.
However, the aggregated search results from m-spatial cast some doubt on this, although it’s too early to suggest that it busts the idea to smithereens.
The Top Ten searches for 2007 and 2006 are:
1 Cinema
2 Fast Food
3 Drinking
4 Taxi
5 Supermarkets
6 Home
7 Electrical
8 Clothing & fashion
9 Clubbing
10 Banks
Now you could argue that a goodly proportion of searches might be to find out the phone number to get more information about them (cinemas and electrical) or to order one in the case of a pizza or taxi. This is supported by the list of brands people are searching for - around 60% are for these sorts of services.
But I just can’t think of a reason why you’d want to search for a supermarket (Tesco is the most searched for term and Asda and Sainsbury’s are both in the top ten). It’s a gut feel thing, but I can’t think that many people would want to call them, so they must be trying to find out where they are. But wouldn’t you know where your nearest Tesco is? And if you were travelling (it’s unlikely that this many people would be outside the area they know, surely?) would you be looking for your nearest Tesco?
The most puzzling one for me though is KFC - number 10 on the list and accounting for 6% of all searches. I can’t believe anyone would ever want to phone one (or buy anything from one, but that’s another story). What would you ask? “Do you sell greasy chicken made to an old dead guy’s secret recipe?”. They don’t do home delivery (in the UK at least), so the only logical reason must be that people want to find their nearest store - inexplicable under the “people don’t use find-my-nearest applications” and inexplicable because the food is errr…well, shite really, but that’s just a personal view.
My final thought is that it might be stuff people want to plug into their personal nav systems to find the way to these places - I assume that’s why “home” is popular. Now, I’m as addicted as the next nav-junkie, but I’d never use it to find my way to the supermarket or KFC. Maybe others would though?
Anyway, just thought I’d share my general bafflement and confusion on this one, proving that I don’t have all the answers, or don’t even think I do.
Can anyone shed more light? What have I missed?
Update: If you’re confused by the reference to brands in this post, there’s another list in the press release that records searches by brands. Click on the link here to shed more light or just trust me that I’ve used the right references. Thanks, Scott.
Hi Russell,
One critical difference between the US and the rest of the world is the lack of grid-oriented road systems and logically oriented addresses. If you look up an address in a familiar US city, the grid systems mean the house number and logical addressing generally communicate direction and location. In the UK the postal code is the most significant piece of the address, and most people don’t have all of the postal codes memorized. Many other European (and especially Asian) cities are even worse. For example, in Japan and Korea the buildings are assigned addresses in the order they are built, not with any intention of providing location relevance. This leads to a much more difficult time for people to determine their current location (and directions) without the aid of a detailed map.
This difference in the actual physical infrastructure largely explains the 2x larger market for portable navigation systems in Europe and even higher penetration in APAC. SK and Japan have ubiquitous satellite navigation (installed and mobile), while virtually every cab driver in London has a satnav device even if they have lived there their whole lives.
My guess is that KFC and ubiquitous chains probably appear so high in m-spatial’s results because users are using it as a landmark to locate themselves on a map and search for nearby POI in an unfamiliar area and it is significantly easier to triple-tap than an entire street address. As far as just entering a ZIP/postal code, users often do not know many postal/ZIP codes other than where they live and work. Vodafone Live’s local portal provides CellID based positioning, meaning that if users searched for a KFC, they would get a fairly short list of nearby stores, and hence their location.
Best,
Blair
Hi Blair
Thanks for the comment and an interesting theory! I’m not really convinced though, to be honest, about navigation by fast food joints.
However, stranger things have happened. My son’s first words (after “No”) were pretty much “KFC”, “McDonalds” and “Burger King”. Which is when we realised that we’d better have a little chat with our nanny at the time.
Anyway, not saying you’re wrong, but I’d need a little convincing on this one.
Russell
Russell,
Local search is neither as big an opportunity as has been claimed or as small an opportunity as you seem to think.
When I sold Vindigo in 2004 we were doing over $10 million in revenue annually, the majority of that from local search products. Although I left the company in 2005 after it merged with Zingy, I know that revenue from those products has increased every year since.
The primary customers are 25-34, single, and living in major cities - where they frequently visit areas that they do not know well - and they search for places to eat, drink, shop, and find entertainment. That’s not everybody, but it is a *lot* of people.
mSpatial’s list is almost exactly what I’d have predicted. Cinema was such a big category for us that we split it out into a separate product.
Supermarkets are a surprise. Here’s my guess: the supermarket searches are for the same reason as pizza and fast food. UK supermarkets like Tesco’s sell a vast range of meals for one - sandwiches, salads, microwave meals. I lived in London for two years and bought lunch at Marks and Spencers at least once a week. I’ve also lived in San Francisco and New York, and the market is completely different; no one in New York goes to a supermarket for lunch.
Best
Jason
Supermarket searches for opening times maybe?
You know where the thing is but you can’t always remember if it’s still open, and could save yourself a 15 minute round trip
Just a guess… (I’ve wanted this info myself far more times than i’ve wanted to either find my nearest supermarket or find its phone number, and it’s the only reason i could think that i’d want its phone number)
I agree with the opening times theory. I often use the online yellow pages to search for local stores just for the phone number, most times to find out if i can make it there before they close.
Regarding KFC, a number of people may not be aware that they don’t deliver. Or maybe they are searching for a category by brand name to see if any aternatives come up. Like a non-greasy version of KFC
I would imagine Cinema is simply to see whats showing.
Very interesting though…
Wayne
Jason - while I agree that UK supermarkets sell a big range of stuff, it still doesn’t explain why so many people look them up with local search. Taking your example, if you buy lunch at M&S, you know where it is, what it sells and it’s obviously open at lunchtime, so what’s the purpose of the search?
Raddedas and Wayne - I think some people might be enquiring about opening times, though most Tescos these days are open pretty much any time you want - from 7.30 - 9 or so - and that’s pretty well known. But I don’t buy that this is the only reason, or even the main reason.
As for all these people phoning KFC asking if they deliver, it’s an interesting theory, but again, I’m not convinced. If they really got this query so often, there’s probably be something on their website saying WE DON’T DELIVER as they’d be wasting so much time answering the phone to these types of spurious calls. Interestingly though, there isn’t even a store locator on the website either, which given all the people looking them up on their mobiles seems a wasted opportunity.
The mystery continues….
KFC has been known to dabble in mobile-marketing (http://mmaglobal.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=151). Maybe KFC shows up well because of the awareness they’ve built through these campaigns (or simply perhaps because people have bookmarked prior KFC searches).
Russell,
If I live and work in Chelsea, I know where the Tesco’s is. If I am in Clapham or Notting Hill or Islington on business, I don’t. We tracked the time of day when people used our service: lunch, after work, and the weekend.
Jason
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