NEW YORK - Paralleling the growth of the Internet, more off-deck mobile sites are monetizing content as subscribers migrate off carriers' portals, according to a panel at yesterday's digiday: Mobile conference.

Panelists debated whether carriers would change their business plan to become more like media companies or providers of consumer data for marketers. While most companies represented do have agreements with carriers, one -- European-based mobile social network itsmy.com -- does not.

"We're carrier independent, because we're WAP-enabled, and our intention is to connect everyone with each other via the mobile Web," said Antonio Vince Staybl, cofounder and CEO of itsmy.com, Munich, Germany. "As opposed to carriers' closed barriers, an open mobile Web is our goal so that everyone can join.

"Mobile browsers are best, because every mobile phone with a browser can use a browser-based service like ours," he said. "If you force people to download an application, it's harder for people to invite other and spread the word virally.

"We can advertise to every customer from every carrier, and we love carriers, because everything we do, we do on their networks, their handsets and their billing and payment system."

However, he questioned whether or not carriers can claim to "own" their subscribers.

"Who actually owns the customer? The carrier? The handset manufacturer?" Mr. Staybl said. "Working off-deck, we own the customer, as far as the possibility for monetization."

Reebok launched a mobile social networking campaign to promote its Freestyle Hi model by letting targeted consumers interact with the shoe design on itsmy.com (see story).

Although itsmy.com works with companies such as AdMob and Quattro Wireless for mobile advertising, only 25 percent of its revenue comes from mobile advertising partners, while 75 percent comes from micropayments.

"We're still figuring out what models are most effective, but the deployment of smartphones is at sufficient levels that it puts us in a position to look at models beyond carriers making data revenue, such as advertising, response SMS and banner ads on the mobile Internet," said Evan Neufeld, vice president of comScore Brand Metrix.

"We've seen an increase in usage of mobile browsing and SMS, a decrease in paying for content and an increase in ad-supported models, so we'll see what actually will work," he said. "Will carriers in the U.S. just provide bandwidth or will they become media companies selling content or getting ad revenue? Or will they become a data warehouse company like Acxiom?

"What are the core competencies of taking the data you need for billing purposes to another type of activity like targeting?"

While carriers can be an accelerant to the mobile marketing ecosystem if they do the right things in the marketplace, it will evolve and expand with or without their cooperation, according to several panelists.

Because of the high degree of fragmentation, however, there are various issues to iron out.

"As for targeting data, who owns this information? The carrier? The social networking platform or publisher? The advertiser?" said Alan Chapell, vice president of Chapell & Associates. "It depends on the context.

"Advertising is the prevalent model and some folks are having success with micropayments, but the problem is that if you're only collecting 50 cents or a dollar, splitting it various ways between all the players, it's hard to make money," he said.

As the monetization models move away from carriers' control, how will they exist in the new environment?

"The carriers can become data companies to facilitate transactions and help target mobile ads, offer location-based services with customer data and provide mobile usage data that can be used downstream from on deck and off deck," Mr. Chapell said. "Carriers have been less than successful as media companies, so are they going to be any good at the data business?"

Everyone agrees on the importance of data in understanding and deriving value from mobile consumers by increasing ads' relevance.

"Understanding specifically who you're reaching in a mobile context has been very difficult, because a lot of data is only available via carrier relationships," said Eric Litman, chairman/CEO of Medialets. "The technology is getting smarter and platforms are evolving, but no one vendor will have all the answers to help brands monetize mobile or derive brand value, so people are starting to work together.

"Richness is starting to develop, and while models are not fully baked yet, you may need to consume from multiple sources and tie your strategy to models from the Web world," he said. "Find the right intersection points between online and mobile.

"While you can't discount the value of on-deck carrier relationships if you can get there and the revenue split opportunity outweighs your costs, the App Store distribution model is also interesting, as Apple was the first company to successfully wrest control from the carriers."

Apple's App Store has processed 600 million-plus application downloads and that growth rate continues to increase.

"There's significant pent-up demand there, and as the model evolves, carriers will get into the app store game, and you'll get app stores pre-loaded on devices," Mr. Litman said. "You might have multiple app stores on a single device with a host of revenue opportunities.

"Everything we've learned in publishing applies," he said. "Provide compelling content to create attractiveness and stickiness."

One venerable journalism institution has turned to the mobile channel and is reaping the benefits.

"We have carrier relationships, but much of our growth has been virally and off-deck," said Robert Samuels, director of mobile products for The New York Times. "Our iPhone app helped quite a bit, and much of our WAP traffic comes from iPhones.

"We've seen tremendous viral growth, and we're forming relationships with OEMs to enable a New York Times portal within the device itself if it's not turned off by the carrier," he said. "We can monetize by selling advertising, and our focus has been on cross-platform buys, selling print, online and mobile together, as well as sponsorships.

"Mobile is a regular part of the pitch -- we include it as a campaign linked to print, creating more value around our content and reaching our great demographic whether in print or on mobile."