Microsoft makes ads mobile

Microsoft Corp. started putting ads into its MSN Mobile portal on cell phones, trying to boost its position in a market where it lags behind its primary online competitors. The company also struck an advertising deal with CNBC.com.

The company declined to give financial details as part of the separate announcements Monday. The addition of ads to the MSN Mobile service in the U.S. reflects a long-term strategy, as opposed to a quick revenue spike, said Phil Holden, a director in Microsoft's online unit.

"There's a realization that mobile advertising right now is a relatively small percentage of the pie today, but a huge opportunity in future years," he said.

The free MSN Mobile portal runs inside Web browsers on a variety of mobile phones and software, including but not limited to Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. It offers access to news, sports, weather, e-mail and other services.

The ads will be adjusted depending on the mobile phone's screen size, in some cases appearing as tiny graphical banners and in others as simple text.

Initial MSN Mobile advertisers include Bank of America, Paramount Pictures and Jaguar Cars North America, Holden said.

To create the system, the company says it combined its own advertising work with technology it acquired in its purchases of two companies: aQuantive and ScreenTonic.

Separately, Microsoft became the exclusive third-party provider of advertising on CNBC. com, the Web site for financial news channel CNBC. The CNBC. com site has 2.6 million unique monthly visitors, according to the companies. That compares with the 50 million active users to which Microsoft has access as part of its similar online advertising deal with the Facebook social networking site.

Microsoft reported $487 million in advertising revenue in its most recent quarter, a 33 percent increase, but it's still well behind Google and Yahoo, which reported $4.2 billion and $1.5 billion in advertising revenue during the same period, respectively.

"Microsoft is making very significant investments in our advertising platform and advertising technology," said Jon Tinter, the company's general manager for online strategy and business development. "Part of the way that we'll realize returns on those investments is by getting more high-quality, third-party partners to join us in using that platform."

Elizabeth Sami, CNBC's senior vice president of business development, said part of the appeal is that the Microsoft deal will let CNBC advertisers extend their presence to other financially oriented sites. Microsoft also supplies ads to the financial sections of its own MSN.com site, for example.

NBC Universal, CNBC's parent company, continues to have a relationship with DART, an advertising service from DoubleClick Inc., which Google is seeking to acquire. Microsoft and NBC Universal are separately joint venture partners in the MSNBC.com Web site.