Vungle ‘hustlers’ create $1M fund to lure app developers
Vungle announced Tuesday that it’s using half of its seed money to create a $1 million fund to bring top mobile app developers into their new platform. Read more »
955 Dreams releases mobile publishing and advertising tools
955 Dreams, whose Band of the Day app was Apple’s App of the Year runner up, is now letting other publishers make use of its smarts by releasing a publishing platform as well as an ad engine so content owners can create their own magazine-style apps. Read more »
Will Election 2012 deliver a mobile ad breakthrough?
The campaign for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will spend big dollars this summer to deliver ads to voters’ iPhones and iPads, a move that could pep up sluggish demand for mobile ads. Read more »
Twitter CEO: some days, mobile ads outsell web ads
Twitter has raised more money from mobile advertising than web advertising in many instances this past quarter, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said Tuesday, demonstrating the platform’s success at earning mobile dollars in comparison to peers like Facebook by allowing advertisers to purchase promoted Tweets and hashtags. Read more »
Google hopes AdWords + AdMob can solve the mobile monetization gap
Google may be poised to help bridge mobile monetization gap with the biggest integration of its AdMob acquisition to date. AdWords’ more than 1 million advertisers will now be able to extend their campaigns to AdMob’s network of 300,000 mobile apps. Read more »
Search beats display by large margin in mobile ad spending, study shows
Facebook better hurry up with that search engine it’s reportedly building. A new survey of the mobile market shows that search ads are outstripping display ads by a wide margin in every region of the world. Read more at paidContent »
Everyone has a mobile problem: not just Facebook
It’s the question that has dogged Facebook and likely contributed to its IPO fiasco: does Facebook have a mobile problem? New data shows that it does: but then so does every Internet company trying to figure out how to make money in the mobile landgrab. Read more »
Rubicon Project expands into mobile with Mobsmith acquisition
Los Angeles-based Rubicon Project today announced that it had acquired the San Fracisco-based mobile ad tech platform Mobsmith. Read more »
Sense Networks makes location-based advertising relevant
Sense Networks believes it’s got a way to make location-based ads effective by looking not only at place, but matching it to the unique behavioral profile of users. The company is now putting its know how to use with two new products that are debuting Wednesday. Read more »
Will Facebook adapt to mobile or will mobile adapt to Facebook?
If Facebook’s future is mobile, it may not be enough for it to merely secure a piece of the mobile ad market. It will need to have an outsized impact on the industry. Read more »
Ex-AdMobbers nab $6.5M to build cross-platform cookies
A team ex-AdMob and Google scientists are launching Drawbridge, which allows advertisers to target consumers across desktop and mobile. The company is coming out of stealth mode with $6.5 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital Read more »
Spanish mobile ad net TapTap takes $4.5 million to launch in America
photo: Corbis / James Leynse
A Madrid-based mobile advertising network is taking investment to challenge big U.S. competitors. Read more at paidContent »
Digital advertising surged 22 percent in 2011 to $31B
Driven by strong growth in the search and display sectors, U.S. digital advertising revenue expanded by 22 percent in 2011, reaching a record $31 billion, according to a report prepared by Price Waterhouse Coopers U.S. and released Wednesday by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). Read more at paidContent »
2012: The year mobile advertising starts to pay off
As smartphone ownership skyrockets and flash sales and local offers prove the importance of proximity, it’s clear that this is the era of hyper local mobile. Here we examine forces at play, and how effective are hyper local mobile ads actually are. Read more »
Mobile ad firm Madvertise buys Turkey’s Mobilike
Most Berlin startups are looking to get acquired, but here’s one that’s doing the buying: Madvertise, which has just picked up Turkey’s top mobile advertising company Mobilike for an undisclosed sum. Madvertise is already the leading mobile ad firm in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Globally, it’s […] Read more »
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A look back at mobile in Q1
Smartphone sales surged both in the U.S. and worldwide, carriers struggled to cope with the ever-increasing consumption of mobile data, and the fight for spectrum remained front and center in the first quarter. Our latest quarterly wrap-up analyzes these trends and more. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Pontiflex launches HTML5 API for sign-up ads
![pontiflexAndroid_AppLeads_PPH[1]](http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/pontiflexandroid_appleads_pph1-e1333973229438.jpg?w=210&h=140&crop=1)
Pontiflex, a mobile sign-up ad platform that allows consumers to pick what kind of ads they want to see, is introducing an HTML5 API that will enable mobile ad networks and publishers of mobile websites to offer signup ads without having to install an SDK. Read more »
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Hyperlocal: opportunities for publishers and developers
Hyperlocal mobile advertising is at a critical juncture: Leading analysts predict that mobile ad spending will increase by more than five times between 2011 and 2015. But what are the forces at play, and how effective are HyLoMo ads? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Good day for mobile ads: Millennial IPO soars
Mobile advertising’s best days are likely still off in the future, but that hasn’t stopped investors from snapping up shares of mobile ad firm Millennial Media on its first day as a public company, nearly doubling the company’s value in a few hours. Read more »
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Hey, traditional media: You may not need an app for that
The Pew Research Center this week said mobile devices are increasingly driving traffic for traditional news outlets, but digital revenues aren’t enough to offset falling print revenues. So instead of investing heavily in mobile applications, some outlets should focus on building great mobile ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Former iAd executive now playing games with mobile ads
Mobile users are spending more time glued to their smartphones, but advertisers have yet to figure out the best way to engage with those users. SessionM, a new startup from one of the founders of the company that led to Apple’s iAd, has a new idea. Read more »
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New Facebook ad offerings fill some holes
Facebook needed to change the way it sold advertising inventory and add some glitzier formats. Last week, at its fMC event for marketers, it made some progress towards addressing those needs. Let’s see what Facebook is doing right and where it still has ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook buys some time but hasn’t solved mobile
Facebook may have figured out a way to get advertising in front of mobile users of its products, but that doesn’t mean it has a mobile advertising strategy. Instead, Facebook is taking a product designed for the desktop and hoping it won’t freak out mobile users. Read more »
Facebook pushes advertisers to get creative and social with ads
Facebook showed off a new suite of premium ads that enables brands to create more engaging stories for users and finally brings marketing to Facebook’s mobile properties. It’s part of a broad effort to generate revenue for the social network as it prepares to go public. Read more »
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Opportunities and challenges for mobile deals
Mobile deals combine location-aware discounts with mobile marketing campaigns. What are the largest pitfalls in this promising space, though? Privacy and security issues must be addressed to assure consumers their purchases are secure and their location is being closely guarded. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
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QR codes may be struggling, but they’re nowhere near dead
Tech enthusiasts and mobile marketers are already celebrating the “death of QR codes,” which have long failed to live up to the hype. But for advertisers who understand how to use them effectively, QR codes can be a powerful ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Android apps on Playbook won’t support mobile advertising from RIM
Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will not be able to support mobile advertising at launch, RIM said. That means Android developers who make free apps will have even less incentive to bring their apps to the PlayBook through the Android App Player. Read more »
Facebook could generate $1.2B in mobile advertising in one year
Facebook, which is still planning its mobile advertising strategy, could generate $1.2 billion in its first year in six markets alone. That’s according to MobileSquared, a mobile research firm, which believes Facebook could become one of the two biggest companies in mobile advertising next to Google. Read more »
Apple said to cut iAd pricing once again
Apple has once again cut prices on its iAd system for rich in-app advertising on iOS applications, as ad buyers continue to balk at the up-front cost of participating in Apple’s vision of how mobile advertising should work. Read more »
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Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implications
This report outlines the myriad issues at play in Facebook’s move, from examining how CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to rewire the world to understanding the company’s infrastructure dependency. But from every angle, it’s clear the effects will ripple throughout the startup and tech communities. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Nexage hits 100 billion ad requests as mobile advertising heats up
As the world goes mobile, it’s prompting a boom in mobile advertising, which is poised for a huge year in 2012. The winners include companies such as Nexage, a real-time bidding exchange provider which told me that it hit 100 billion ad requests today. Read more »
Facebook just revealed its Kryptonite: mobile
In its IPO filing Facebook mentions the word “mobile” 123 times but didn’t use the term in positive ways. In fact, Facebook’s S-1 filing is one big warning to investors: Its growth is being driven by user behavior that it has so far failed to monetize. Read more »
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NewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout
The fourth quarter may have lacked a dominating big-event product announcement like Q3’s Facebook platform extension or Q2’s unveiling of Google+, but the NewNet world continued to buzz along. In the battle for mind share, everyone wanted to be a platform. Meanwhile, consumer and social technologies continued to gain momentum, and new vehicles for content and service discovery presented both challenges and opportunities for NewNet companies. And it is hard to ignore the overcrowded but growing world of daily deals. This quarterly report analyzes these trends and others, and it also provides a near-term outlook of trends, technologies and companies to watch in 2012. Companies mentioned in the report include Amazon, Facebook and Socialcast. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Appstores.com lets anyone build their own app store
Appstores.com is launching an app distribution network that allows web publishers to curate their own app galleries, highlighting relevant apps for their audience. Appstores.com is also releasing a mobile ad unit that allows web publishers to inserts ads for apps that are tailored to its users. Read more »
Study: Search-Ad Clicks On Mobile Devices Are Growing Faster Than On PCs
In the world of search advertising, mobile phones and tablets continue to outpace performance of search ads on PCs, although they still repr… Read more at paidContent »
Mobile advertising matures with private ad exchanges
Rich media ad firm Medialets is launching Medialets Private Marketplace, a buying platform that lets advertisers directly plan, buy and execute on Medialets’ collection of top publishers. The marketplace reflects the emergence of private exchanges in mobile and the growing maturation of mobile advertising. Read more »
Mobile ad network Millennial Media files for IPO
Mobile ad network Millennial Media has filed to go public as it looks to capitalize on the big shift in advertising toward mobile devices, a market that is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years as smartphones and tablets proliferate. Read more »
Apple hires Adobe exec to lead iAd
Several months after losing the head of its iAd program, Apple has filled the gap. The company has plucked Todd Teresi from Adobe, where he’s been VP and general manager of media solutions, to lead its mobile ad team. He started at Apple on Tuesday. Read more »
Infographic: Holidays are hot for in-app mobile ads
We already knew that mobile advertisements perform better on larger screened devices and now there’s evidence of when the best time of the year is for a these ad spots in apps. If you guessed the year-end holiday season, you’d be right according to this infographic. Read more »
Kiip lets brands create flash contests inside apps
Kiip, a mobile monetization startup that offers real rewards to game users who hit in-game milestones, is now going after bigger brand advertisers with a new feature called Swarm, which engages millions of users in multi-player tournaments with the top winners walking away with big prizes. Read more »
