Mobile friendly corporate websites - AEX vs. Bel20
comments: 7A small explorative research by Jungle Rating amongst the largest Dutch and Belgian listed companies shows that seven AEX companies as opposed to zero BEL-20 companies have a mobile friendly corporate website. In this article we explain what a mobile friendly corporate website should be and why we believe you need one.
A small explorative research by Jungle Rating amongst the largest Dutch and Belgian listed companies shows that seven AEX companies as opposed to zero BEL-20 companies have a mobile friendly corporate website. In this article we explain what a mobile friendly corporate website should be and why we believe you need one.
What is a mobile friendly corporate website?
When typing in www.ing.com on a mobile browser the ‘normal’ ING website appears (see screenshot below), including all branding elements, downloads, etc. The mobile friendly page - http://ing.mobi, on the other hand, is very accessible and easy to navigate.
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| ING.com on mobile browser |
ING.mobi (mobile-friendly) |
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Mobile websites for executives and financial stakeholders
A mobile friendly corporate website mainly serves two target groups; your executives and your financial stakeholders. Consider that most of your executives and financial stakeholders are travelling a lot and will have a Blackberry or a smart phone to keep themselves up to date.
Some scenarios
- When the executive team is on a road trip and heading for a meeting with an investment bank they need to check for the latest press releases and the actual stock price to be fully prepared.
- Financial journalists on their way to the half-year results presentation might want to read the press release beforehand.
- A financial analyst on the road might need the phone number of the IR department to ask a question on an article he reads in the newspaper.
A mobile friendly corporate website will certainly help your executive team and financial stakeholders to find relevant financial information quickly and easily.
Explorative research: AEX vs. Bel-20
Jungle Rating visited all corporate websites of the 25 largest Dutch and 19 largest Belgian companies to see whether they have a mobile friendly version of their corporate website, providing:
- share price information
- the latest (financial) press releases
- a financial calendar
- IR contacts
We found that 7 Dutch companies and 0 Belgian companies have a dedicated mobile corporate website, but the available information differs a lot.
| Company |
Share price? |
Press releases? |
Calendar? |
Contact info? |
| DSM |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
| Hagemeyer |
yes |
yes |
no |
yes |
| Heineken |
yes |
yes |
yes |
no |
| ING |
yes |
yes |
yes |
yes |
| KPN |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
| TomTom |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
| Wolters Kluwer |
yes |
no |
no |
no |
Table: 7 Dutch companies having a mobile corporate website
- ING has the most complete mobile website, including stock information, press releases, a financial calendar and IR contact information.
- All companies provide topical share price information on their mobile friendly website.
- DSM, Hagemeyer, Heineken and ING provide press releases
- TomTom and Wolters Kluwer only have a mobile share price tool (and nothing else)
Concluding, some companies – like DSM, ING and Heineken - are serving their executives and financial stakeholders with complete information on their mobile friendly website. Companies with a ‘mobile’ share price only seem to miss the chance to provide other relevant topical information, like press releases, a calendar and IR contact information. Jungle Rating therefore believes that a lot of Dutch and Belgian companies can improve the provision of mobile information for these important target groups.
Tips for a mobile friendly corporate website
- Conduct a research among your executive team and financial stakeholders to find out whether they like to have a dedicated mobile website to quickly find topical financial information
- Make sure the mobile version of a corporate website is a stripped off version of the normal corporate website, having:
- a dedicated url (.mobi, /pda). Communicate the existence of this website
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topical information relevant to investors and press (stock price, press releases, event calendar). Also read last year’s article on mobile devices.
- Visit http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php to see what your corporate website would look like on a mobile phone.
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7 comments on this article
Louise McGregor - 07 aug 2007 17:26
I am the Internet Manager at ING and responsible for the ing.mobi site. We thought hard about what we wanted to provide, and decided to start with simple information of value to the Analyst/Journalist group. The site has been well received and we're proud to see it recognised here. Thank you.
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Geert Jan Grimberg - 07 aug 2007 17:59
@Louise
Thanks for your response and my compliments for the effectiviness of the ing.mobi corporate website. Do you have insight in user stats of ing.mobi? Does the ING executive team make use of the mobile corporate websiter as well?
@all
Do you have examples of user-friendly mobile corporate websites? What content do you consider essential for a mobile friendly corporate website?
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Louise McGregor - 07 aug 2007 18:14
Geert-Jan, We do get monthly statistics, and it had a very slow start despite being something analysts had asked for. The site is used by at least some of the Executive Board members, and it's valued by the IR team. The Head of IR can now answer questions about share price and see Press Releases while travelling (he could subscribe to get headlines via SMS, but can now see the whole article).
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Martin Voorzanger - 13 aug 2007 20:52
Why is a .mobi extension being used? The proforma standard seems to be g.company.com.
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Martin Voorzanger - 13 aug 2007 20:53
Correction: m.company.com (for instance m.google.com)
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Geert Jan Grimberg - 16 aug 2007 09:33
Martin, we notice that a wide range of mobile urls are being used at the moment(.mobi, mmm., /pda, /mobile, mobiel.[company].com). The problem seems to be that there is no universal standard yet.
The .mobi variant was introduced as a toplevel mobile domain name (by company called Dotmobi).
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Jeff Jefferson - 27 aug 2007 16:44
I think that is exactly why mobi is being used--with all of the different variations listed by Geert, it is difficult to remember what any particular company uses for its mobile site. .mobi seeks to eliminate that confusion and also provide users with a site that is sure to work on a mobile device.
Regards,
Jeff
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