Allison Schiff is the managing editor of AdExchanger, where she covers mobile, Facebook (sorry, Meta), measurement, privacy and the app economy. Allison received her M.A. in journalism from the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland (her favorite place), and a B.A. in history and English from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.
Glispa keeps scooping up companies. On Tuesday, the Berlin-based mobile ad platform plunked down an undisclosed sum to buy native mobile ad exchange Avocarrot, its third acquisition in less than two years. Glispa bought MoneyTap, a Russian mobile mediation platform, in March, followed by the acquisition of Brazilian mobile performance agency Mobils a couple of […]
There are walled gardens, and then there’s Arbor. The startup, which raised a $6.5 million round on Tuesday, bills itself as a marketplace for people-based data. Think of it as a supply-side platform mated with a co-op for deterministic data. The bulk of the round, led by Canaan Partners with participation from First Round Capital, […]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sponsored content disclosures on the mind. A complete lack of disclosure led to an FTC settlement with Lord & Taylor in March after the brand enlisted bloggers to post images to Instagram promoting one of its dresses. As FTC senior attorney Robin Spector told AdExchanger at the time, “What we are […]
Every retailer that isn’t Amazon is thinking about how not to get crushed by Amazon. “Amazon is taking over retail,” said Oliver Chen, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Cowen and Co., speaking at AdExchanger’s Omni.Digital conference in Chicago on Thursday. Based on its recent research, Cowen is betting that by 2017 Amazon […]
Breather, a startup that lets people book work spaces on demand, spends all of its digital ad budget on Google and Facebook – 65% and 35%, respectively – because Google and Facebook work. But figuring out why they work – and what effect they have on revenue per user, lifetime value and the overall customer journey – is another […]
Apple’s Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) feature is about to have a few more limits in iOS 10. Although Apple has allowed users to opt out of seeing interest-based advertising since iOS 6, vendors and advertisers could still use device IDs for functions like frequency capping, attribution, debugging and fraud detection. No longer. In iOS 10, […]
There are lots of private marketplaces for mobile inventory out there. On Tuesday, Adsquare launched a PMP for mobile data. Supply-side players like PubMatic, Rubicon Project and Adform already allow buyers to bid on inventory in a private deal. “We’re enabling data owners to decide who can make use of their data,” said Adsquare CEO […]
Musical.ly is mainly known as a lip-syncing and video sharing app popular with teens, but it’s starting to sing a different tune and expand its user base. “We’re probably that lip-syncing app you hear about from your niece or nephew,” said Kevin Ferguson, director of sales and business development at Musical.ly, which allows users to […]
It’s video FTW for Opera Mediaworks. Reporting earnings under Opera Software for the final time – the sale of Opera’s consumer-facing browser business is expected to close by the end of September – Opera Mediaworks on Wednesday cited a 23% increase in Q2 revenue year over year to $114.4 million. That number represents the lion’s share of […]
When it comes to doling out rewards, app developers like Hothead Games walk a fine monetization line. “You want to give meaningful rewards without hurting your economy,” said Kenneth Wong, senior monetization manager at Hothead, which makes a number of sports-themed and first-person shooter games for mobile. While advertising is part of Hothead’s monetization mix, […]
The Knot’s audience is engaged – literally. Eight out of 10 couples in the US – around 12 million monthly uniques – visit the wedding planning site for advice while getting ready for the big day. But The Knot has transformed itself over the last three years from an online publication to what Mike Steib, CEO and president […]
Western ad tech companies looking for an exit only have a handful of choices. They can IPO like The Trade Desk (not likely), get acquired like Yahoo (slightly more likely), sell to private equity like Marketo or Mediaocean (only an interim solution) or, as is now becoming the trend, find a Chinese consortium with an […]
These are the TV brands you know – Sony, Samsung, LG. But the browser inside their hardware comes courtesy of a third party. And Opera TV, the purveyor of said software, is starting to dip its toe into more consumer-facing fare. “We shipped 42 million devices with our software last year and we’re nearly at the […]
Entrepreneur and investor Peter Pham knows teens, and the term “native advertising,” like, totally makes him roll his eyes. “I’m sick of hearing the word ‘native’ because nothing I’ve seen in the market is actually native to the experience,” said Pham, co-founder of Science, a tech incubator with a knack for getting startups off the […]
Beijing-based Miteno Communication Technology is buying contextual ad network Media.net for $900 million in cash.In other words, a Chinese consortium led by a company you’ve most likely never heard of just spent almost $1 billion to acquire an ad tech company you’ve also probably never heard of. It’s a trend we’re going to see more […]
Kirthi Kalyanam will speak at AdExchanger’s Omni.Digital conference in Chicago on September 8. A lot of marketers are struggling with retargeting. According to a recent Millward Brown Digital poll of 300 senior brand, agency and media execs, 55% of them aren’t confident in their company’s grasp of the customer journey. “Historically, the advertising industry has […]
GhostBed is ready to go to the mattresses to gain share of voice in the super-competitive bed-in-a-box market. One tactic in its arsenal: cars wrapped in advertising. “It’s like a moving billboard – you’re getting an enormous number of impressions and it’s cost-effective for us,” said Marc Werner, CEO and founder of Nature’s Sleep, manufacturer of […]
Regardless of their size, carriers are actively looking for new ways to monetize – selling text-and-talk plans alone isn’t cutting it anymore. Mega telcos are clearly cooking up plans for incremental ad-related revenue, as evidenced by Verizon’s multibillion-dollar acquisitions of AOL and Yahoo. But small, specialized telcos like Life Wireless are also turning to advertising to […]
Last year, Oracle had deals going with a number of different cross-device players, including Drawbridge, pre-Telenor Tapad and Crosswise. In April, Oracle decided to make one of those companies its own, snapping up Crosswise for its data cloud for a reported $50 million. Although Tapad and Drawbridge still power Oracle Data Cloud products, there came a point […]
“Angry Birds” maker Rovio Entertainment knew the sheer size of its user acquisition tactics was making it a sitting duck for ad fraud. “With a name like Rovio, the ad exchanges see us as having big potential for them,” said An Vu, Rovio’s user acquisition lead. “They often want to sell us a lot and […]
If a picture is worth a thousand words, Lux is hoping video is worth a conversion. The home decor and interior design shopping app, which launched July 2015 on iOS and Android, sees a 30% higher engagement rate on autoplay video than on static product photos. “Facebook has proven that autoplay video can be quite […]
Reuters hopes its TV app is the opposite of a traditional TV-based news consumption experience. It’s an algorithmically generated and editorially curated video package for the cord-cutting generation. “It’s clear that the concept of what makes TV, well, TV is changing,” said Isaac Showman, managing director of Reuters TV, which positions itself as a product […]
MasterCard is partnering with location data company PlaceIQ to help retailers and merchants connect what people buy to where people go. The relationship, unveiled Wednesday, “paints a much richer picture than location or transaction insights can provide by themselves,” said Shubhra Srivastava, VP of media solutions at MasterCard. “Location data complements transaction-based insights and provides […]
Malicious bots are getting more sophisticated and bot blocking companies are raising more cash – the arms race is in full swing. One such company, Distil Networks, announced $21 million in Series C funding on Tuesday as part of its bid to keep combating what CEO Rami Essaid called “a growing problem.” The round, led by […]
Although Opera Mediaworks is no longer packing its bags and moving to China, newly minted CEO Will Kassoy is still bullish on the opportunity there. “China is a huge market for advertising,” said Kassoy, who took the reins from former company chief Mahi de Silva in December after roughly two years as CMO. Kassoy joined […]
If you’re a developer looking to monetize and attribute spend across devices, Facebook and Google might soon become the only shows in town. “Bummer,” called out an audience member at Grow.co’s MAU event in New York City on Tuesday. As programmatic buying grows on mobile, so does the need for an analytics infrastructure that traces […]
Sprint is starting to see the mobile wallet as a natural complement to and extension of its native app. Mobile wallet is on a user’s device by default – Apple Pay on iOS and Android Pay on Android – which creates a lower barrier to entry for brands that don’t have an app or want […]
With its acquisition of Yahoo on Monday, Verizon – and therefore AOL – is sinking its hooks into a treasure chest of cross-device data. “It’s very large and very deterministic,” said 360i president Jared Belsky. Cross-device connectivity was ostensibly one of the big motivators behind Verizon’s acquisition of AOL in May 2015, and now the same […]
It’s been a bumpy road for Fiksu – from app marketplace rock star to ad tech cautionary tale – but now comes the next chapter. On Monday, the mobile app marketing platform, which was acquired by private equity firm Noosphere in early June likely as part of a fire sale, announced that it’s splitting itself into four […]
If a brand is able to handle its own growth hacking, user acquisition, audience creation, tracking, measurement and testing, then fair enough – there’s no real reason to work with a digital agency. “But if you’re not Machine Zone or Supercell with a 50-person team that’s really good at that, then you do need us,” […]
