Mobile Fraud Concerns; Germany's New Laws

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Mobile Fraud Concerns Swell

Fraudsters see a potentially lucrative opportunity as mobile ad budgets grow. The cookie-less environment and separate standards create vulnerabilities in the channel, DigitasLBi CIO Adam Shlachter told Adweek. But with lower ad rates for mobile than for desktop, some industry execs aren’t worried just yet. “If I were going to try to defraud someone, I would be looking to inflate PC impressions because those are more sellable in the marketplace,” said Evolve Media President Brian Fitzgerald. More.

German Data Regulations Cont.

Legislators have drafted a new Internet security law that could threaten US tech companies’ presence in Germany’s digital marketplace, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The German government is purportedly also considering stipulating that all German Internet data be stored locally, which would box out major cloud tech enterprises. The news does not sit well with software companies such as SAP that have heavy global operations. “National solutions for cloud computing are the wrong path,” said SAP CFO Luka Mucic. “We must work with international partners like the US and simplify the regulatory framework.”

Native Sells

Native advertising boosted publisher revenues in the third quarter, according to Ad Age. The New York Times, for instance, saw a 16.5% increase in digital ad revenue in Q3, which VP of advertising Meredith Kopit Levien attributed to Paid Post, the NYT’s sponsored content platform. Sponsored mobile ads contributed to Facebook’s 64% spike in ad sales, and Twitter’s ad revenue jumped an impressive 109%. But native advertising isn’t doing wonders for all media properties (*cough* Yahoo). Tumblr’s parent company saw a dip in its premium display ads during Q3, as advertisers turned to its less costly native Stream Ads. Read on.

LinkedIn Vs. Salesforce

Writing for TechCrunch, Infer CEO Vik Singh suggests LinkedIn has the data and resources to rival Salesforce and Marketo. Read it. Singh’s hypothetical: Say a company were to include JavaScript from LinkedIn on its website. The company could track signed-in LinkedIn users who visit their site, capturing a potential customer base that looks but won’t touch contact forms. The challenge for LinkedIn would be integrating with back-office applications for web analytics, lead routing, customer-relationship management triggers and more. “Although the risks of moving into the sales and marketing space are high given the safeties LinkedIn enjoys today, the market is just too lucrative to ignore,” writes Singh. Pair with this AdExchanger analysis.

Score (Two?) For Social

Social Reality, the developer of exchange-based ads platform and social marketing tool GroupAd, secured a $20 million credit facility from a Chicago-based asset-management firm, along with $5 million in new equity financing from Siskey Capital. A portion of that credit facility was put toward an acquisition of Steel Media to ramp up display, mobile and email ad inventory. Social Reality rolled out a supply-side platformdubbed SRAX (Social Reality Ad Exchange) last year. The blog post.

Razorfish Headwinds

It’s been a tough few months for Public’s digital arm Razorfish, with Maurice Lévy blaming the holding company’s weak Q3 results on key client losses at the agency. The plot thickened with Publicis’ acquisition of Sapient. And with Razorfish CEO Pete Stein rumored to be on his way out, Dstillery snapped up Razorfish VP of media Julie Weitzner on Monday. Razorfish may soon lose more executive leadership as it’s rolled into Rosetta and Nurun, and rebranded Razorfish Global under Tom Adamski. Adamski will in turn report to Alan Herrick, head of the new Publicis.Sapient digital and technology unit.

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