Mobile

The Q4 online advertising rout hit Snap, Meta, Alphabet and others, but Amazon and Apple continue to gain ground.

Geoffroy Martin was promoted to CEO of Ogury. Martin joined as COO a year ago, switching from Criteo to the newer French ad tech startup because he said he’s in tune with Ogury’s focus on planning campaigns without advertising IDs or third-party identity data.

Following a dramatic courtship between Unity and ironSource, Unity put a ring on it. The merger closed on Monday. The purpose of the deal is to bring all of the tools developers need to create, test, launch, grow and monetize their games together under one roof.

Uber formally organized a new segment of the business called Uber Advertising on Wednesday. Uber also introduced a new ad offering called “journey ads” that allow brands to target Uber riders based on their destination.

Vertical video won the user-generated content wars long ago. If you see someone filming with their phone in landscape, they probably have a hotmail email address, too. Snapchat and Instagram may have shifted the way most people (or at least, most young people) take photos and videos, but it took TikTok to shift the way YouTube and its advertiser base use the Google platform.

Mobile measurement provider Branch is expanding its offering with the acquisition of a first-party data platform. On Wednesday, Branch bought AdLibertas, a data platform that helps developers gather and analyze their first-party data in one place.

Looks like AppLovin’s attempt to wedding crash Unity’s planned merger with ironSource isn’t going to work. On Monday, Unity’s board of directors rejected AppLovin’s bid to buy the company and reaffirmed its commitment to merge with ironSource.

What’s the rationale behind AppLovin’s bid to merge with Unity (kicking ironSource to the curb in the process)? Adam Foroughi, AppLovin’s CEO, got into the details on the company’s Q2 earnings call.

TFW you think you have a date to the dance … and then it turns out you don’t. On Tuesday, AppLovin offered to buy Unity in an all-stock merger valuing Unity at $20 billion – but the offer doesn’t include ironSource.

What does a bloody third-person shooter game about robbing banks at gunpoint have in common with a hyper-casual game that involves flipping a strip of cartoon bacon from a skillet to try and make it land on random objects? The answer: Not much, but both are classified as “action” games, according to Apple and Google in their respective app stores.