Google’s got an ad exchange. So does Facebook. Twitter is said to be working on one too. But in the meantime, the company has just purchased MoPub, a burgeoning mobile ad exchange business.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
MoPub has built an ad exchange through which mobile publishers and app developers can sell ads, and mobile advertisers can purchase ads in real time. The move by Twitter underscores the growing importance of mobile advertising for the company, and perhaps signals a desire to play in the ‘ad tech stack’ battle being waged by Google, AOL and others.
“The two major trends in the ad world right now are the rapid consumer shift toward mobile usage, and the industry shift to programmatic buying,” wrote Twitter’s vp revenue, product, Kevin Weil, in a blog post. “Twitter sits at the intersection of these, and we think by bringing MoPub’s technology and team to Twitter, we can further drive these trends for the benefit of consumers, advertisers, and agencies.”
Beside MoPub’s exchange, Twitter says it plans to incorporate the company’s real time bidding technology into Twitter’s own ad platform, which should help Twitter scale its ad business. Early this year, Twitter opened up its advertising API as part of a push to bring more brands to the platform by allowing them to manage multiple campaigns in an automated fashion.
Twitter’s move comes as the mobile ad business seems to have consolidated, for the moment, around the giants Facebook, Google and Twitter, and away from mobile display ads. A few weeks ago Millennial Media purchased Jumptap in a deal that underwhelmed many in the industry.
This MoPub deal seems less about Twitter taking on the mobile display leaders. “In particular, we think there is a key opportunity to extend many types of native advertising across the mobile ecosystem through the MoPub exchange,” wrote Weil.
Mike Shields | September 9, 2013 | http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/twitter-acquires-mobile-ad-exchange-mopub-152313