Mobclix Offers Audience Profiles To Ad Network Partners
Mobclix, the largest mobile ad exchange for the Iphone ad market, has announced it will re-sell audience profiles to its ad networks partners. The move will allow agencies and advertisers to better target specific audiences through the Mobclix exchange. The demographic segments will be provided from Nielsen’s PRIZM and ConneXions programs. Read more about this story here.
The mobile display space is experiencing a lot of activity: increased number of M&A deals; the emergence of new platforms; and increased competition in the market. Only yesterday Apple beefed up its mobile sales team in Europe, as it seeks to leverage the Quattro acquisition to grab more market share here.
Mobile display continues to be the headline grabber: Google, Apple, Amobee and Opera have all made significant acquisitions in the past couple of months to bolster their presence in the space. The market is due to grow significantly this year due mainly to the take-up in smartphone apps.
Exchanges and ad network optimisation are now emerging in mobile display. The latest mobile ad net optimisation service to be rolled here in Europe comes courtesy of Improve Digital. Janneke Niessen, COO of Improve Digital, took time this week to speak to ExchangWire.com about the new offering for European publishers.
Apple finally unveiled its highly-anticipated tablet computer. They’re calling it the iPad, and it looks set to deliver Apple another blockbuster success. Apple has signed up a number of high-profile publishers, and its being touted in some quarters as a vital revenue stream for ailing publishers.
The most interesting thing about the new iPad though is the app market. Like the iPhone, this latest bit of Apple hardware will have an app store of its own. The official SDK has been released to developers today, and applications developed specifically for the iPad should appear in the coming weeks.
It was announced this week that Opera was buying mobile ad network Admarvel for $15 million. Opera has presently the biggest share of the global mobile browser market. Opera will probably leverage Admarvel to monetise all of its branded mobile products. Good move given its market reach.
Is this of the end to the wave of takeovers sweeping through the mobile ad market? There could be a few more big moves to come.
Microsoft does have some presence in the mobile display market – but might feel that it too needs to acquire an established mobile display player. Yahoo might also want to improve its present mobile ad platform and buy.
There’s been a lot of M&A action of late in the mobile display market. Google and Apple have made significant purchases to stake their claim in this growing area of online advertising.
It follows then that yield optimisers, Admeld and Pubmatic, have also made their way into mobile display, sensing the market is now ready for their ad network optimisation service. How long before we see the arrival of a buy-side DSP for mobile?
This news comes on the back of a similar move by Admeld. Both clearly see opportunity in the growing mobile display market. And both are now looking to work with existing publisher partners to improve yield on their mobile ad inventory. But will it be as easy to onboard mobile ad networks as it is in online display? The market is still evolving, and there is still a lot of growth to be had. Ad nets might think they’re better off working with publishers directly.
The yield optimisers (or publisher exchanges) will probably get most traction in monetising international traffic for premium publishers. Dealing with global ad nets requires resource and time – and pubs will gladly partner Admeld and Pubmatic to optimise and manage those relationships.
Admeld announced yesterday it was hiring Marc Theermann as its VP of mobile. Theerman has extensive experience in the mobile ad industry. He has worked at mobile application company, Everypoint, and mobile marketing firm, YellowPepper.
More recently Theerman worked for Smaato, the market’s leading mobile ad network optimisation platform. Doubtless it was this optimisation experience with Smaato, which attracted Admeld in the first place.
Theerman will lead the mobile ad optimisation service, as Admeld looks to help clients optimise both mobile and online ad inventory.
The new Admeld exec believes that convergence of mobile and online display is now a reality, and will ultimately lead to premium publishers demanding a more integrated offering:
The convergence of mobile and web advertising is happening faster than anyone predicted. As this trend accelerates, premium publishers will increasingly require a fully-integrated toolset to manage and optimize their inventory across all platforms. As the leader in ad network optimization for premium publishers, AdMeld is uniquely positioned to provide its customers with this groundbreaking functionality, and I am thrilled to be leading their mobile initiatives.
It was announced this week that Apple acquired mobile ad network Quattro for a rumoured $275 million dollar. It’s Apple’s first foray into mobile display, and it’s a significant development for the mobile ad market.
Quattro’s advertising network covers mobile websites and smart phone applications. The company serves ads in more than 100 countries and its network partners include CBS Interactive and Time Inc.
The real clincher for Apple though is Quattro’s market share of display ads on iPhone apps. The number of apps on the iPhone platform has exploded in the past twelve months, and Apple is now looking to grab a slice of the mobile ad market.
This acquisition comes hot-on-the-heels of Google’s takeover of Admob for $750 million. It was rumoured that Apple had tried to buy Admob, but Google won out in the end.
The company was said to have revenues of $100 million dollars in 2009, and served up 10.2 billion ad requests across 15,000 mobile web sites and app. Google clearly thinks that mobile display could be worth billions, and given the growth in the smartphone market who would bet against them.
With this purchase Google will likely own thirty-to-forty per cent of the US mobile ad market – but as mobiThinking points out there is still not enough transparency to determine whether or not the Admob deal will give Google a competitive advantage over other players in the market:
Three facts you need to know about mobile ad networks:
1. No ad network is dominant. This is still a very fragmented market. There are at least 10 mobile ad networks in the US alone.
2. No one really knows what ad network is biggest. The only way to tell is by revenue and no network reveals revenue data. Any figures you read about market share or revenue are estimates, if not pure guesswork. And as we all know, size isn’t everything…
3. Mobile ad networks are not created alike.
It’s likely that Google will put some of this mobile ad inventory onto the DoubleClick Ad Exchange towards the back of 2010, bringing mobile and online display onto the same platform.
The mobile ad market in the UK and Europe is expected to grow significantly in 2010. So who is left in the mobile ad game now that the Silicon Valley titans have entered the fray?
Three to watch in 2010 in Europe…
Adfonic:
A European mobile ad network launched early last year, offering aelf-service model to advertisers and agencies. Adfonic is likely to offer more premium mobile ad inventory in 2010, as it looks to introduce more transparency to the mobile display buy.
Smaato:
Smaato is the world’s largest mobile ad network optimisation platform. The German-based company now has thirty-three mobile ad networks on its platform.
Mobclix:
Mobclix is the industry’s largest mobile ad exchange for the iphone ad market. Its open platform allows buyers to bid on available ad space. It works with all the major mobile ad networks and now covers the majority of the app market.
It was a funding bonanza yesterday for players involved in the exchange space. Smaato, the biggest mobile ad network optimiser in Europe, announced yesterday that it had secured $4.5 million in a second round of funding. The company has now thirty-three ad networks on its optimisation platform.
Like the display yield optimizers, currently working heard to win business from Europe’s top-tier publishers, Smaato are positioning themselves as the mobile ad platform that can better monetise international traffic.
Smaato also has scale, which helps address the problems of latency and unsold mobile ad inventory. The new investment will enbale Smaato to further develop its existing SOMA optimization platform.
Redwood Shores, California: December, 3 2009: Smaato, the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today announced the closing of its second institutional round of funding (Series B). Aeris CAPITAL led the $4.5 million round, with an undisclosed partner and existing shareholders also participating. The capital will be used to grow the company’s leadership position as the largest mobile advertising optimizer, and to grow its global presence.
“Our mission is to give mobile publishers a dependable mobile advertising solution for their worldwide inventory to maximize mobile revenues,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and Co-Founder of Smaato. “We provide an innovative mobile advertising optimization and mediation platform that can deliver ads in 215+ countries for mobile web and apps. This new round of funding will help us further expand our network of now 33 ad networks globally and continue to provide the best possible choice and service to our customers. We have recently opened our Singapore presence and as a result of the funding we will continue to strengthen our position in other regions.”
More than 1.000 publishers have signed up with Smaato as a partner to monetize their content so far and Smaato is managing close to 3 billion ad requests per month. Mobile publishers, mobile developers, ad networks and operators partner with Smaato to maximize mobile advertising with aggregation of multiple leading ad networks worldwide. Working with mobile ad networks on a global scale, Smaato has a unique offering to the market: relevant local ads combined globally in a single sign-up process at www.smaato.com.
“The mobile advertising market is growing rapidly and it has proved to be a profitable business even in recessionary periods. In fact, we have seen mobile advertising increase dramatically over the past 12 months. We see enormous potential to grow the business and our geographical offering,” continued Mr. Kruse.
Uwe Feuersenger, CEO of aeris CAPITAL said: “As demand increases worldwide for mobile advertising solutions, we see Smaato as the pioneer in the space, capable of leading a true change in the market. As investors, we’re excited to work with the experienced Smaato team who are at the forefront of what we believe will be a huge and beneficial shift for both consumers and mobile companies alike.”
