Home International Mail.ru Launches A Mobile Ad Platform

Mail.ru Launches A Mobile Ad Platform

SHARE:

myTarget logoMail.ru, the Russian internet company, today launched a mobile ad platform called myTarget, opening up the Russian mobile audience to advertisers within Russia as well as internationally. The Russian online advertising market has historically been very insular, which is an issue that Mail.ru wanted to tackle, according to CEO Dmitry Grishin.

“It’s usually local advertising agencies working with portals, and it has worked for many years,” Grishin told AdExchanger. “But because of the nature of platforms like Google Play and Apple’s App Store, we’ve seen that more and more people from many countries want their applications globally.”

myTarget will tap into mobile Mail.ru properties, and will also work with a wide range of mobile applications in Russia. Mail.ru owns some big gaming networks and social sites in Russia, including VKontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki (OK).

“We control such a big audience already, it makes sense for applications of smaller size to connect with us, and it makes sense for advertisers,” Grishin said. “We want to make it easier for them to access the Russian-speaking audience on mobile.”

While the company already offers desktop display advertising solutions, it wants to be more innovative in the mobile space, Grishin said.

“Innovation on mobile is better,” he added. “There is user attention already in mobile and we’re capturing that attention.”

Several clients that already use Mail.ru display ad products are lined up to use myTarget. Those clients include Uber, Unilever, Coca-Cola, P&G, and Ford, according to the company.

Currently about 100 employees are working on myTarget, Grishin said, as the technology was all developed in-house. The main office is in Moscow, with other offices in Amsterdam and Silicon Valley, to connect with European and U.S. clients. But Grishin has bigger plans for myTarget.

“It can be a solution for advertisers from all over, like China,” he said. “A lot of Chinese developers, especially in the gaming world, spend a lot of money. For us, this is an interesting way to integrate ourselves into the global advertising community.”

Must Read

Comic: Gamechanger (Google lost the DOJ's search antitrust case)

DOJ v. Google: How Judge Brinkema Seems To Be Thinking After Week One

Where the DOJ v. Google ad tech antitrust trial stands after one week’s worth of remedies arguments.

Swish, A Company That's Bringing Programmatic to Product Sampling, Announces Seed Funding

Swish, a startup that partners with retailers to provide product full-size CPG samples to people doing their grocery shopping online, announces $2.3 million in seed funding.

DOJ v. Google: During Opening Arguments, The DOJ And Google Battle Over An AdX Divestiture

Court is back in session. And the fate of  the open internet is in the balance.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Chris Mufarrige, director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, FTC

FTC Consumer Protection Chief: No Easy Answers On Privacy, ‘Only Trade-Offs’

Privacy isn’t black-and-white, says the FTC’s Chris Mufarrige, promising evidence-driven consumer protection cases under the Trump administration.

How Encryption Keys Could Resolve The TID Furor

Rather than sharing universal TIDs that any DSP or curator can access, Raptive says publishers should instead share encrypted TIDs with an encryption key provided only to trusted demand-side partners.

Clear Channel Brings Mid-Flight Measurement To Its OOH Network

Clear Channel will provide advertisers weekly, mid-flight reports on outcomes driven by its inventory in order to bring OOH measurement closer to the speed of digital.