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Mobile Search Trends Show Economic Decline And Rise In Pizza
Calley Nye
10 comments »

v-enable

V-Enable, a voice-enabled mobile 411 system, conducted a study by taking a random sampling of 20,000 searches in major metropolitan areas from customers of several V-Enable partner carriers including Alltel and MetroPCS. The findings clearly represent interesting trends caused by the recession. For one thing, people are eating more pizza! The results for the top restaurant searches for the period between October 2007 and June 2008 are:

1. Pizza Hut
2. McDonald’s
3. Domino’s Pizza
4. Starbucks
5. Papa John’s Pizza
6. Little Caesars Pizza
7. Taco Bell
8. Burger King
9. Wendy’s
10. Denny’s

Sit-down restaurants like Olive Garden, Applebee’s and Red Lobster, have dropped off the list, while recession-proof comfort food like Pizza Hut and Domino’s shoot to the top of the list. 380% more searches for Pizza Hut have been conducted during the period, and searches for Domino’s Pizza have increased 980%. High gas prices are keeping people at home ordering in, and they are opting for cheaper alternatives. Financial analysts have explored this area extensively, and have deemed several of these restaurant chains “recession-proof stocks.”

There are several other search-related economic indicators from V-Enable. U-Haul, a company that was never on any top 50 list, jumped to #23 in general search, possibly because of a rise in foreclosures. Macy’s dropped from #17 to #49 in retail, a direct correlation to the fact that people just don’t have the discretionary income that they used to. Motel 6 has never showed up on a top 50 list, but they are now #37 in general search, quite possibly because travelers can’t afford the costly alternatives. Mobile search happens in real-time and is unaffected by SEO, making these statistics arguably more reflective of consumer sentiment than web search.

V-Enable is a mobile information system, where users can speak the name of a restaurant or residential listing and receive location and contact information. The company also has live operators working behind the scenes so that users can call and get human assistance, if necessary. V-Enable sent us similar retail statistics in December. The company is backed by $10.1 million over 3 rounds from Siemens Mobile Acceleration Corporation, Sorrento Ventures, SoftBank Capital and Palisades Ventures.

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also: iphone 3G is having activation problems.. AGAIN

Advice for auto industry

Auto manufacturers in US are increasingly working hard to get their vehicles more fuel efficient and closing truck / minivan plants (like GM and Chrysler announced few weeks ago)

i have been reading solutions proposed to the industry on WSJ , Business week etc: all mainly focusing on fuel efficiency for current class of vehicles. Here is a FREE tip for the auto industry: "wagons". People still have too much stuff and still need a vehicle to transport all the shopping that's being done.. if they cant ride their SUV's and cars can't fit stuff, the only fuel efficient answer (at least in the short term, now-5 years) is increase production of wagons. what would be a big hit: Prius Wagon! 45 mpg + lots of storage.

Another proof that i am right is: A look at inventory at Carmax shows, SUV's are not selling, but there is very limited supply of hybrids AND wagons.

-D

openwave (OPWV) sells mobile business for $32M

It is really amazing how the market is valuing certain assets. Even today, am sure, Openwave has the one of the largest deployments of their mobile browser in north america and probably in the top 3 worldwide, which would be more than a billion phones over time. It sure seems something was terribly wrong somewhere, granted the markets are not doing well (helio $39M), but $30M seems just too low.. Nuance spend more than $200M on voicesignal, from my perspective, this acquisition should have been a no brainer for someone that wants access to embeeded software in millions of handsets. Leaves me curious, if you know the answer: email me!