Grabr is an ecommerce app for the stuff you can’t usually find online. “You can think about us as the Airbnb for international shopping and delivery,” said Daria Rebenok, CEO of Grabr, a peer-to-peer marketplace that aims to help travelers make a little extra cash by acting as couriers for difficult-to-obtain items from anywhere in […]
Reddit spent most of 2015 in a state of turmoil – executive shuffles and users in revolt over policy changes amid concerted and ongoing efforts to cut down on trolling and unsavory content. Reddit’s reputation: not necessarily the most brand-safe environment. That instability led to the return of Steve Huffman as CEO of Reddit last […]
At Allstate, the experience comes before the advertising. “You need to create value before you can market against that value – you can’t go out of sequence,” said Allstate CMO Sanjay Gupta. That’s especially true on mobile, which now accounts for 30-40% of Allstate’s online traffic. Allstate is responding to consumer behavior in kind with a […]
Accenture’s digital services group Accenture Interactive “never set out to disrupt the agency relationship,” said Bob Barr, its managing director and global B2B commerce lead, but that’s pretty much what’s happening. “Just from a digital perspective, we’re a [roughly $7] billion agency,” Barr said. “When I tell that to people, they just stop and go, ‘Huh. […]
Through a growing number of API partnerships, car service companies like Uber and Lyft are broadening their reach across the app ecosystem. “With the proliferation of companies in the rideshare space, we’ve [seen] huge demand for people to want to move around,” said Vishay Nihalani, senior product manager at Lyft. “It’s like a basic human need at this point.” […]
One way to monetize free-to-play games is to make reward videos feel like they’re part of the game. Since its founding in 2013, Helsinki-based mobile game developer Next Games has raised $18 million, released two games, expanded to 70 employees and emphasized creative ways to implement incentivized ads. In its game “Compass Point: West,” a […]
There’s a perception that large brands move too slowly to keep pace with consumers, especially as time spent on mobile continues its climb. But that’s not the case at Johnson & Johnson and it doesn’t have to be the case at other brands either, said Gail Horwood, J&J’s VP of worldwide digital strategy, speaking Tuesday […]
Cheetah Mobile is looking to lap up some brand dollars. On Tuesday, the Beijing-based mobile app publisher announced a hook-up that will integrate Kiip’s rewards platform into its suite of apps, including a number of its most popular offerings: antivirus apps Clean Master and CM Security, battery life extender Battery Doctor and mobile game Piano Tiles 2. […]
The debate over which will prevail – native apps or the mobile web – is moot. The question, rather, is not which will win, but when the two will merge into a more fluid system centered on content and discoverability, rather than friction and discrete downloads. “We’re going to see less disparity between the mobile web […]
Berlin-based Fyber is on a tear. On Friday, Fyber, an SSP for mobile app developers, and its parent company RNTS Media announced that they’ve acquired mobile ad network Heyzap for as much as $45 million. RNTS Media will pay $20 million in cash upfront, with an additional $25 million in cash and shares available down the […]
Attracting mobile users is pricy. Attracting the right mobile users is even pricier. Cost per install in September was $1.53 on iOS and $1.88 on Android, a 24% and 87% YoY increase, respectively, according to the most recent data from Fiksu. The cost to acquire a loyal user, defined as someone who opens an app […]
Why did Time Inc. decide to partner with Etermax, the Buenos Aires-based game studio responsible for the hugely popular app Trivia Crack? a) as a native play b) as a form of content discovery c) to encourage mobile engagement d) all of the above The answer: d. “We’re quickly evolving from being a print company […]
SDK mediation is still a major headache for developers. “We constantly hear from publishers that they want full control of their inventory – they don’t want to send their inventory into a black box,” said Ajitpal Pannu, chief business officer of mobile ad exchange Smaato, which on Wednesday launched a tool designed to act as an […]
Mobile apps are way faster than the mobile web, and that’s a serious problem for publishers. “I work really hard to make the mobile web load as quickly as possible, but it still takes about five seconds,” said Free Reyes, the co-founder, editor and COO of movie site GeekTyrant. Fifty-five percent of its traffic comes […]
Mobile-first doesn’t mean mobile-only. That’s the thinking at mobile marketing automation company Leanplum. “You want to design a journey for customers that they find useful,” said Momchil Kyurkchiev, CEO and co-founder of Leanplum. The company announced $11.6 million in Series B on Wednesday, led by Kleiner Perkins and with participation from Shasta Ventures, bringing the company’s […]
Facebook is mostly an app company now. Desktop monetization of Facebook’s owned and operated properties keeps shrinking both in actual numbers and as a percentage of the overall business. In the second quarter of 2015, desktop revenue shrank 8% and contributed less than one-fourth of Facebook’s total ad revenue, the company said in its earnings disclosure […]
Berlin-based mobile ad platform Fyber (formerly SponsorPay) wants to become what it calls a full-stack “specialized supply-side platform.” “Specialized” refers to its focus on the world of freemium apps, said Janis Zech, CRO and co-founder of Fyber, which announced its acquisition of German ad tech company Falk Realtime on Wednesday for €10.75 million, which translates to […]
There’s more to mobile than just meeting a KPI. That’s the idea behind a new self-serve analytics tool launched Thursday by mobile user acquisition platform Taptica that aims to help advertisers dig a little deeper into what their mobile users are up to. “Last year was all about KPI – our advertisers were focused on defining […]
As smartphone penetration increases, especially in Asia, advertisers are looking to tap into global app audiences – and InMobi is looking to get ahead of the trend. The mobile ad network said Tuesday that advertisers and agencies will be able to buy mobile app segments in 36 countries via programmatic-direct deals on the InMobi Exchange. […]
App developers are engaged in an eternal struggle to acquire users, keep them, and understand what the heck they’re doing. But it’s the “who” and the “why” that are the most compelling questions. On Thursday, app analytics company App Annie released an expansion of its mobile intelligence product line designed to help advertisers and app publishers […]
Fitness app RunKeeper is trying to monetize for the first time via a partnership with mobile rewards ad network Kiip to embark on a subtle version of advertising – but don’t call it advertising. Kiip founder and CEO Brian Wong doesn’t really like the word, mainly because for many people mobile advertising is synonymous with […]
App install ads are hot, but what if the apps they advertise are not? Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup Voxel hopes to add an additional dimension to app-install ads via a feature that lets users click on an ad to sample the app in a 30- to 60-second demo that takes over the device’s screen. “We’re […]
Apple has given its tacit approval for the use of its Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) to attribute app installs and post-install actions. The development, welcomed by app marketers and their ad partners, comes two months after Apple spread fear in the app ecosystem by rejecting some apps that didn’t adhere to a narrow ad serving […]
RelayRides knows that mobile devices are an essential channel for reaching new and current customers. The San Francisco-based car-sharing service lets private car owners rent out their vehicles. It serves more than 1,900 US cities including 270 airports, connecting drivers with car owners who post photos and information about their vehicle on RelayRides’ website. When […]
As new apps continue to flood the market, it has become harder for app developers to acquire new users, forcing developers and marketers to think beyond installs to drive more revenue. Apple said on Tuesday that App Store customers spent more than $10 billion in 2013 and that it has paid developers $15 billion to […]
Mobile analytics and engagement solutions are among the most competitive arenas in the mobile app space, especially as more startups enter the market. To combat this heavily fragmented space, mobile analytics firm Kontagent and mobile monetization platform PlayHaven announced Wednesday that they are pooling their resources by merging. “Creating a top application today involves dozens […]
Facebook unveiled features to help developers enhance their apps at its Mobile Developer Conference in New York City today. Among the changes are features designed to ease concerns about data sharing. Noting that users can be wary of giving third-party apps access to their profile data via Facebook login, the company now enables brands to […]
Mobile app analytics provider Flurry has been preparing for a world where mobile is the main nexus for marketing and e-commerce. And while mobile ad spend generally lags way behind consumer usage, the company believes that dynamic will change relatively quickly and that its Flurry Marketplace, the name of its mobile RTB system, will help […]
Convincing students—not to mention adults with full-time jobs—to sign up for summer courses is never an easy task. As an experiment, New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies is trying out a free mobile app designed to drive enrollment in an online summer mobile marketing course. Created through sponsorships with Sprint and DudaMobile, […]
App developers and publishers who have yet to stop using unique device identifiers (UDIDs) now have a cut-off date. Apple informed app developers yesterday that it will soon ban any apps or updates to existing apps that include UDIDs, a component of analytics systems that publishers and developers have been using to track apps and […]
