The free ride is over, Facebook to put ads in its mobile apps

Facebook, not content with its sizable chunk of the online display ad pie, could go mobile with its ad platform by the end of March. The company is already projected to take home 20 percent of all online ad revenues next year.

Facebook is mulling the idea of adding Sponsored Stories — the ads the company already runs on the upper right-hand side of its 800 million-member site — to the mobile News Feed, Bloomberg … Continue Reading

MoPub’s Marketplace brings real-time trading to mobile ads

Mobile ad startup MoPub aims to put a fresh spin on mobile ads today with the launch of MoPub Marketplace, a real-time bidding service for mobile ads that lets publishers take full control over the ads on their apps.

Founded by former Google and AdMob employees, MoPub launched late last year with the goal of letting mobile app publishers serve ads directly rather than go through an ad network. Now with MoPub Marketplace, the startup … Continue Reading

Google: 190M Android devices activated, mobile revenue run rate hits $2.5B

The total number of Android devices activated worldwide has now reached 190 million, Google CEO Larry Page said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call today.

Additionally, the company announced a $2.5 billion mobile revenue run rate — Google’s expected mobile revenue over the next year based on its performance this quarter — up from $1 billion last year.

Google pointed to mobile search as its big mobile moneymaker. “Mobile is becoming a must-have,” Google sales … Continue Reading

Apple phasing out iOS UDID access to solve privacy woes

With the launch of the most recent iOS 5 beta release, Apple is now instructing third-party developers to stop using the unique device identifier (UDID) in iOS devices, which is often used to track user behavior.

The change will disrupt business for many app developers, especially for mobile ad networks and companies like Tapjoy that rely upon UDID access heavily, but it could mean the end of major privacy concerns for Apple.

It’s also a … Continue Reading

Glam Media goes mobile: launches ad platform, mobile site builder

Mobile is the next big step for Glam Media, a female-focused media and advertising company. Glam today is launching its GlamMobile advertising platform and GlamEnable, a platform that lets publishers create websites and apps optimized to run on mobile devices.

Glam CEO Samir Arora tells VentureBeat that he’s interested in mobile because it’s quickly growing in terms of consumer engagement and interest by brand advertisers. Now that Glam has hit $100 million in revenue and … Continue Reading

InMobi nabs Sprout for easy HTML5 ad creation

It’s a match made in advertising heaven: Sprout, developer of an easy-to-use online editor for creating and distributing HTML5 ads, has been acquired by the independent ad network InMobi, the companies announced this morning.

Sprout will remain independent, and CEO Carnet Williams will join InMobi’s executive team to keep Sprout running. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

“With InMobi’s global presence we are able to quickly deploy our HTML5 mobile ad creative platform into the … Continue Reading

Apple tops Nokia for mobile ad requests in Europe

For the first time ever, Apple has screeched ahead of Nokia devices to be the top manufacturer when it comes to European mobile ad requests, according to ad network InMobi‘s latest Mobile Insights report.

“The Q2 2011 results show another major inflection point for mobile advertising in Europe,” writes InMobi’s Rob Jonas, VP of Europe and Middle East operations. “Smart devices, driven by iPad, iPhone, and Android devices, are now defining the mobile experience for … Continue Reading

Moolah Media adds phone reports to its mobile ads

When mobile ad network Moolah Media came out of stealth mode in December, it placed a big emphasis on its pay-per-performance model, where advertisers pay for actions rather than impressions. The San Francisco startup is taking that model even further today with real-time call reporting.

Phone calls are an obvious ways to track the success of a mobile ad — if the consumer sees an ad on their phone for a product or a service … Continue Reading

Cooliris shows off its cool 3D ads for the iPad (video)

Media browsing startup Cooliris’ business plan has always revolved around high-quality, good-looking ads, and even though it recently refocused on its mobile photo app LiveShare, chief executive Soujanya Bhumkar said he’s still pushing forward on slick new ad products.

Specifically, Cooliris has created new “immersive 3D ads” for the iPad. You tap on the banner ad, which then opens into a 3D product demo that you can rotate using the iPad or iPhone, or into … Continue Reading

Google says game developers can rely on ads for income

As mobile app developers figure out the best ways to make money, Google wants to convince them that mobile ads can be a lucrative option — especially on its AdMob mobile ad network. As one piece of evidence, Google sent me a case study that outlines the success of a company called Best, Cool & Fun Games.

The startup was founded by former investment banker Guilherme Schvartsman, who says Best, Cool & Fun Games is … Continue Reading

4info says its mobile ad business is exploding

Mobile startup 4info first became known for delivering advertising in SMS text messages, but the company moved aggressively into display ads last year, and it sounds like those efforts have paid off.

The company said that the number of mobile display ads it served increased by almost 2,000 percent in 2010. A big increase was probably expected, since 4info didn’t start ramping up its display efforts until recently. The San Mateo, Calif. company launched its … Continue Reading

JiWire brings location data to mobile ads with Compass

JiWire, a company that uses Wi-Fi locations to deliver ads to consumers, today announced the launch of Compass, a service that delivers ads that pull in specific data based on the user’s location.

The Compass ads can appear on iPad, smartphones or laptops and appear as normal display ads. Once the consumer clicks on an ad, it expands into a full-screen ad and, depending on the advertiser, may show where a physical store location is … Continue Reading

Mobile ad network Moolah Media says it’s all about performance

Apple made a big splash this year with its iAd network for high-quality ads from big brands, but new mobile ad network Moolah Media says it’s already successful by aiming for advertisers who aren’t quite as high-end.

The San Francisco startup is coming out of stealth mode today, but its services have been up-and-running for a month. Chief executive Shawn Scheuer said Moolah Media has already served more than 100 million impressions and generated more … Continue Reading

AdMob investor backs mobile ad startup MoPub

AdMob was one of the big success stories in mobile advertising, at least from a venture capital perspective. Now a team of former AdMob and Google employees are launching a new mobile ad startup called MoPub, and they’ve raised seed funding from AdMob investor Accel Partners.

Chief executive Jim Payne, who focused on metrics at AdMob (more recently, he worked on Google Maps Premier and various monetization initiatives), compared MoPub to online ad server DoubleClick … Continue Reading

Google's idea of the perfect ad (video)

Shedding light on Google’s latest thinking about “the perfect ad,” Google’s vice president of product management, Susan Wojcicki, ran through five demos in 10 minutes at the Web 2.0 Summit today in San Francisco.

Wojcicki, who is in charge of the design and innovation around Google’s ad and measurement platforms, talked about ways to enhance advertising effectiveness through a combination of web search, location-based mobile phone technology, and photo imagery. The demos worked, for the … Continue Reading

AdMob's Omar Hamoui leaves Google for "personal reasons"

Updated

Omar Hamoui, founder and chief executive of Google-acquired mobile ad startup AdMob, is leaving the search giant for what the company says are personal reasons.

Only five months have passed since the acquisition finally closed, which means Hamoui spent more time (about six months) waiting for the government to approve the deal than he did at Google. Following the acquisition, Hamoui was named Google’s vice president of mobile ads.

We’ve heard that Hamoui was … Continue Reading

Verve Wireless lands $7M for mobile publishing and local ads

Verve Wireless, a startup that offers mobile publishing and advertising platforms for local media companies, announced today that is has snagged $7 million in a funding round led by BlueRun Ventures.

The Verve Publishing Platform allows publishers to easily bring their content and advertisers to mobile devices. Verve Wireless is also notable for local mobile advertising — Verve Connect is the largest premium local ad network around, the company says. It serves 750 customers with … Continue Reading

Yahoo Japan scoops up location-based mobile ad firm Cirius

Yahoo Japan has acquired location-based mobile ad firm Cirius Technologies. Cirius is based in Tokyo and operates AdLocal, a service that targets consumers with ads. It takes into account the physical location of the users via global positioning system (GPS), cell phone identification, map coordinates and other data.

Cirius has about 38 employees. After the acquisition, AdLocal will close its U.S. office in San Francisco, Calif. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Gen Miyazawa, … Continue Reading

Push-notification platform Xtify picks up $2.8M, ramps up development

Working in the mobile advertising business, New York City-based Xtify has been building its platform for brands and other app developers, allowing for geo-targeted notifications — most often, ads — that are pushed to consumers when they are within a predefined area, say a one-mile radius from a department store. The company has announced it has raised $2.8 million in a first round of institutional funding, which it is using to beef up its product … Continue Reading