AOL is launching a UK mobile browser and portal which is ad-supported and aggregates information from AOL’s websites and other sites. The move follows the company’s sale of its ISP business in Europe as it attempts to become a major online advertising portal. The company has established previous mobile portals in the U.S., France, Germany and India. “This is the beginning of a very active period for us and is the beginning of us pushing AOL as an online advertising portal,” Chris Lock, AOL’s Head of European Mobile, told the Daily Telegraph.
The Time Warner unit will use technology from Adtech, a German company it bought in May this year, before integrating it with technology from Third Screen Media, which it also acquired in the same month. The mobile portal will offer users access to a range of AOL’s products and services, including email, Web and image search, and content channels. As part of the launch, AOL is also offering advertisers targeted mobile advertising, including targeted banner ads across the AOL networks.