Press Releases 2011
Please find here current press releases of Smaato Inc. For older releases: 2009 | 2010
Harald Neidhardt
CMO & Co-Founder
press(at)smaato(dot)com
@hneidhardt
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Smaato Releases Q3 2011 Mobile Advertising Metrics Report
- Despite popularity of Apple and Android platforms, Windows Mobile prevails as top performing operating system globally for mobile ad network performance, with RIM picking up pace
- Mobile advertising fill rates stabilize for U.S. based inventory but decline worldwide
San Francisco, CA/ Hamburg/ Singapore – November 29, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertisement platform, today announces the findings of its latest global mobile advertising quarterly metrics for Q3 2011. Findings detail mobile advertising adoption, fill rates and overall affect on mobile ad network performance and considerations for mobile developers and advertisers. Full results available at www.smaato.com/metrics
The performance parameters in the Smaato Mobile Advertising Index are based on over 40.000 registered publishers in the third quarter of 2011 and over 70 connected ad networks delivering mobile advertising across 230 countries.
U.S. fill rates stabled out, with only 1% drop from previous quarter
In Q3 2011, the top 20 U.S. ad networks (sorted by volume of ad requests) average fill rates declined from19% to 18%, stabling out to only a 1% decline. The findings suggest that there were seasonal factors at work due to the summer period. Thirteen out of the top 20 U.S. ad networks performed above average, at a rate between 19% and 84%.
“Elaborating on the recent Microsoft/Nokia partnership, Ragnar Kruse, Smaato’s CEO and Co-founder said: “It will be interesting to see how the new Window Phone partnership will play out related to mobile advertising performance. Nokia and Microsoft have a great opportunity to establish a viable third ecosystem. They will have to establish a new niche ecosystem for the customer, however, the combination of security, established systems and a new look could be very popular in Europe & Asia.”
Smaato drives Mobile RTB at scale with upgrade to its SOMA Real Time Optimization Platform and first partners StrikeAd and Fiksu
- Smaato is pushing RTB standards as pioneering member of the openRTB mobile group
San Francisco, CA/ Hamburg/ Singapore – November 21, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today welcomes leading mobile DSP providers StrikeAd and Fiksu to take advantage of Smaato’s global RTB-enabled mobile inventory.
Smaato announced today, that SOMA has been substantially upgraded to a new platform version – with significant improvements in RTB, parallel ad requests, rich media and geo location targeting. Mobile RTB becomes available today to all 70+ ad network partners according to the openRTB mobile 2.0 standard.
Smaato is the largest mobile SSP (Sell Side Platform) and pioneering the push for mobile RTB on a global level with its vast reach of serving ads 230+ countries. StrikeAd and Fiksu are joining 70+ leading mobile ad networks and other ad revenue sources connected to SOMA (Smaato’s Open Mobile Advertising platform).
“RTB is benefitting Smaato’s app developers and mobile publishers with enhanced control and maximized pricing. Our SOMA platform is already processing huge volumes of ad requests optimized in real-time. Now with DSPs and other new players, RTB will enhance the relevancy for mobile users as well as data analysis in our publisher dashboards”, stated Ragnar Kruse, Co-Founder & CEO of Smaato Inc.
“As OpenRTB mobile members, Fiksu and Smaato will help the mobile advertising ecosystem become more efficient, which will benefit both mobile advertisers and mobile publishers,“ stated Micah Adler, Fiksu Founder and CEO. “By combining Smaato’s strategic publisher relationships and massive inventory base with Fiksu’s industry leading data set and bidding algorithms, our partnership can provide unprecedented levels of performance for the global mobile marketing ecosystem.”
“Brand and agencies now know that mobile is essential to how they engage with consumers. As a result, we see a surge in demand for more intelligent and targeted access to high quality ad inventory. With Smaato’s extensive range of RTB enabled inventory, we can now provide even more control and choice over where ads are targeted so that brands can optimize their advertising for better ROI and consumer engagement,” stated Alex Rahaman, CEO of StrikeAd.
Cooliris and Smaato Join Forces to Serve Stunning 3D Display Advertisements to over 200 Countries Worldwide
- A global Partnership for Rich Media Mobile Advertising
Palo Alto, CA and San Francisco, CA – November 17, 2011 – Cooliris’ 3D ads business unit, AdJitsu, and Smaato, a pioneer in mobile advertising technology company, today announce a new rich media partnership that will bring AdJitsu 3D ads to Smaato’s global network of 40,000 app developers and premium publishers in more than 230 countries worldwide.
Adjitsu immersive 3D display ads offer an unprecedented level of engagement through virtual product experiences, and have proven successful in campaigns in the US and the UK. Smaato has integrated AdJitsu’s 3D technology into SOMA, its leading mobile advertising optimization platform that aggregates 70+ ad networks globally. The first AdJitsu ads will run on iPhone
and iPad through Smaato’s SDK version 5.06.
“Smaato is excited about the new partnership with Cooliris. Rich Media is an important part for the substantial growth of mobile advertising and we see this as a great opportunity for our developers and publishers to maximize their revenue,” stated Ragnar Kruse, Co-Founder & CEO of Smaato Inc.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Smaato to scale into new international markets, particularly Asia and Europe,” said Soujanya Bhumkar, Cooliris Co-Founder & CEO. “Together we will enable consumers to re-experience brands, products and services like never before.”
Smaato Releases Q2 2011 Mobile Advertising Metrics Report
- Despite increased adoption in mobile advertising, findings reveal fill rates are still in decline
- Apple loses to RIM in mobile advertising performance world index for smartphone OS, but threatens to overtake Windows in the U.S.
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg – September 19, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertisement platform, today announces the findings of its latest global mobile advertising quarterly metrics for Q2 2011. Findings detail mobile advertising adoption, fill rates and overall affect on mobile ad network performance and considerations for mobile developers and advertisers. Full results available here.
“Although current economic conditions are a factor, the continued quarter on quarter decline in fill rates is an indicator that the market is not only becoming increasingly fragmented, but also under threat of commoditization as inventory increases at a faster rate than budgets. While we will absolutely see more ad dollars coming to mobile and the average campaign size increase, this will be across a much wider range of inventory, which will in turn drive costs down,” stated Harald Neidhardt, co-founder and CMO of Smaato.
Smaato Selected by AlwaysOn as an AlwaysOn Global 250 Winner
Recognized for creating mobile technology innovations in the Global Silicon Valley
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg – July 28, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertisement platform, today announced that it has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the AlwaysOn Global 250 winners in the Mobile category. Inclusion in the AlwaysOn Global 250 signifies leadership amongst its peers and game-changing approaches and technologies that are likely to disrupt existing markets and entrenched players in the Global Silicon Valley. Smaato was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts spanning the globe based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.
Smaato and the AlwaysOn Global 250 companies were honored at AlwaysOn’s ninth annual Innovation Summit at Santa Clara University on July 28th, 2011, at the Louis B. Mayer Theatre at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA.
“This year’s AlwaysOn Global 250 are companies driven by the biggest mega-trends, including the accelerating growth of mobile users, cloud computing, and SaaS offerings, globalization, and the socialization of commerce and basically everything online,” stated Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “This year’s winners clearly represent some of the highest-growth opportunities we’ve seen in the private company marketplace in the history of the global Silicon Valley.”
Smaato Launches New SDKs to Support Rich Media Ads
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg – July 12, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today announces the rollout of new SDKs designed to support rich media ads on mobile phones and tablets. The introduction of Smaato’s new rich media solutions will enable developers to more effectively monetize their applications and or content with a wider range of ad formats.
To power its SDKs for rich media, Smaato has partnered with Crisp Media, the leader in cross- platform rich media advertising, and Celtra, a premier global mobile advertising company. Supporting rich media ad formats, Smaato’s latest range of SDKs will enable developers to create more compelling banner and full page ads on mobile and tablet with new formats including expandable, interactive, floating and mobile video ads. In addition, developers can now create mobile video ads for preroll video and click-to-video on both Android and iOS.
“We are happy to partner with Smaato to extend the reach of Crisp-powered mobile rich media campaigns to a broader array of publishers and ad networks across the globe. The engaging features of mobile rich media, such as video, animation, and user interactivity deliver a better user experience to the consumer and greater value to the publisher”, stated Boris Fridman, CEO of Crisp Media.
“We are pleased to support Smaato’s new SDK as rich media continues to become an integral part of mobile ad campaigns. Our innovative technology and unique-self-service approach will make it easier for Smaato’s network of 30,000 publishers to create and monetize consumer engagement”, stated Mihael Mikek, co-founder and CEO of Celtra.
Smaato to Engage Fast Growing Asian Mobile Ad Markets
Singapore – June 22, 2011 – Branding experts are now moving their ad-spend onto mobile because across Asia the medium delivers scale. By the end of 2011 there will be 671.5 billion mobile internet users across Asia.
With the opening of its APAC office in Singapore, Smaato Inc. will be well poised to engage the Asian mobile ad market. The APAC office is headed by media marketing veteran Marcus Tan.
The White Paper published by Smaato with latest research released by mobileSQUARED, projects that the Asian mobile advertising market will be worth US$2.8 billion by the end of 2011, representing an increase of 32% on 2010 spend. Smartphone penetration across much of Asia in 2012 will evolve app marketing from a largely niche play in 2011 to an established business model.
“Smaato is a thought leader in the mobile advertising industry. This important research highlights the enormous potential for the mobile platform as a mainstream media channel in Asia, and EDBI believes that Smaato can strongly leverage Singapore’s connectivity to the rest of Asia to capitalise on this promising growth opportunity in the region and beyond”, stated Chu Swee-Yeok, CEO of EDBI.
Smaato Whitepaper: Asian Market Sees Dramatic Shift in Mobile Advertising Spend
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg – June 14, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today announces the results of the latest research released by mobileSQUARED and published by Smaato. Smaato’s whitepaper highlights research conducted across Asia Pacific, detailing the increase of brand investment in mobile advertising and mobile adoption trends unique to the region.
Smaato reports that mobile advertising will generate 4% of total advertising revenues across Asia Pacific by the end of 2011, with regional market worth of $2.8 billion. Research also reveals that brands are investing more in mobile advertising campaigns, resulting in a country-by-country increase in spend between 32% and 122% over 2010.
Aupeo! Chooses Smaato to Power Mobile Radio Ads in over 40 Countries
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg – June 9, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today announces it has been selected by Europe’s largest mobile radio station, Aupeo!, to power mobile advertising across 40 countries.
As part of the agreement, Aupeo! will leverage Smaato’s intelligent, mobile ad optimization platform, SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising), to seamlessly insert relevant ads into mobile users’ favorite radio stations and preferred music genre.
“The demand for mobile radio is growing at an exponential rate. In order to keep up with demand and continue to deliver the premium content our subscribers have come to expect, we needed a way to monetize our huge inventory of content – all while ensuring we did not jeopardize our users’ listening experience. We chose to partner with Smaato because of its reach and ability to support multiple platforms and networks, which allowed us to quickly rollout mobile advertising on a massive scale” stated Holger Weiss, CEO of Aupeo!
Google I/O: Smaato Releases New Versions of Android SDK and Dashboard App
- First-of-its-kind mobile app provides developers with real-time access to reporting dashboard
- New compatibility with Android Tablets and Android 3.1 enables app developers and publishers to dramatically improve monetization of apps and content
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg, May 12, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising platform, today announces the release of new versions of Smaato’s Android SDK as well as their Publisher Dashboard App for Android. The two solutions are now compatible with Android Tablets and Android 3.1 to provide app developers and publishers greater opportunities to monetize their apps and content.
Now available on the Smaato Publisher Portal, the new Android SDK Version 2.3 features support for leaderboard, skyscraper and medium rectangle ads for Android Tablets as well as a redesigned sample application for both phones and tablets. The SDK sources ads for worldwide mobile inventory from more than 60 ad networks.
With the widest range of free SDKs available, Smaato’s latest updates to its in-app advertising solution now offer over 20,000 Smaato-registered publishers access to increased revenue through higher CPMs and fill rates across Android Tablets and Android 3.1.
In addition, Smaato’s free Publisher Dashboard App, originally designed to enable mobile app publishers to view their app performance in real-time, has been updated to run on Android Tablet now benefitting publishers with a larger screen size. This new version is available today on the Android Market as well as on the Smaato Publisher Portal.
Smaato Releases Q1 2011 Mobile Metrics Report
Findings reveal widespread performance difference by top 40 leading ad networks globally as mobile advertising continues to grow exponentially
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg, May 10, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertisement platform, today released its latest metrics on the global mobile advertising market during the first quarter of 2011. New findings detail the accelerating adoption of mobile advertising, its affect on top mobile ad network performance and considerations for mobile developers and advertisers. Full results are available here.
The performance parameters in the Smaato Index are based on over 150 million unique monthly users, over 80 billion ad requests in the first quarter of 2011 and over 60 connected ad networks delivering mobile advertising in over 220 countries.
Smaato and Vertica partner to drive mobile marketing ROI via real-time data analytics
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg, Germany, February 02, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today announced that has selected the Vertica Analytics Platform as predictive analytics infrastructure.
The Vertica Analytics Platform enables Smaato to analyse data in real-time and optimize mobile advertising revenues across its client base.
More than 11,000 app developers and publishers to drive mobile advertising revenue with Smaato’s adoption of the Vertica Analytics Platform for real-time, cloud-based information
“2010 was the year that mobile advertising really took off, as evidenced by Smaato’s explosive growth throughout the last year,” said Marc Junker, CIO & CTO at Smaato. “To handle the amount of ad requests and optimize clients’ traffic, our team needed a solution that could load and analyze data, as well as provide detailed dashboard views exceptionally fast. Since we’ve implemented Vertica, we have been able to increase the response time of the dashboard output significantly, driving real benefits across our global client base.”
“Smaato is pioneering an exciting industry space, and its rapidly expanding customer base and recent funding are evidence of this,” said Christopher Lynch, President and CEO at Vertica Systems. “This is exactly the kind of information-critical business that Vertica was built to support. We look forward to supporting Smaato and its clients, making the mobile advertising market a lucrative one.”
Smaato Raises $7M Venture Capital Round for International Expansion of Mobile Advertising Platform
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg, Germany, January 26, 2011 – Smaato Inc., the leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company, today announced the closing of a new institutional round of funding. Singapore’s EDBI led the $7 million round, with participation from existing shareholders including global private equity firm aeris CAPITAL. The new funds will help fuel Smaato’s international expansion, in particular to extend its presence in Asia from its Asian headquarters in Singapore.
Ms. Chu Swee-Yeok, CEO of EDBI highlighted, “Smaato is a leader in the mobile advertising optimization space with its highly innovative advertising optimization platform. As a digital advertising hub, Singapore is an ideal base for Smaato to address the fast growing mobile ad market in Asia, given the high concentration of ad networks, media agencies, and publishers here. EDBI looks forward to working closely with Smaato to partner key industry players leveraging on our networks in the region, and executing the company’s ambitious expansion plans in Asia.”
“We have seen a tremendous growth in Smaato’s revenues in 2010. For 2011, we expect even more exponential growth by partnering with leading mobile publishers and app developers worldwide,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO and Co-Founder of Smaato. “Singapore has proven to be an excellent location to expand our Asian business. This new round of funding will help us improve our reach, foster product innovation and grow the Smaato team worldwide.”
Smaato and App Annie join forces to offer iPhone Analytics
Redwood Shores, CA / Singapore / Hamburg, Germany, January 13, 2011 – Smaato Inc. (www.smaato.com) the leading mobile ad optimization company today announced a new partnership with App Annie to deliver smarter analytics for mobile developers and publishers developing on the iOS. App Annie is an independent provider of App Store sales analytics and market intelligence. Screenshots are available here.
The App Annie iOS historical rankings features, part of App Annie market intelligence services, are incorporated into the SOMA platform that is easily integrated by registering here.
“We are glad to partner with App Annie on providing more value and insights for our iPhone/iPad app developers. This service now helps our partners to monitor their success in the different markets and give them insights about the iOS marketplace”, stated Ragnar Kruse, CEO & Co-Founder, Smaato Inc.
“Our partnership with Smaato is a proof of our commitment to help advertising networks provide more extensive statistics to their customers. It’s the first time we are integrating with a third party provider; Smaato’s vision was a perfect match with App Annie leading market intelligence services”, stated Bertrand Schmitt, CEO of App Annie.
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