Twitter acquires mobile advertising firm

Microblogging site Twitter has announced that it is to acquire mobile-focused advertising exchange MoPub. MoPub’s technology lets mobile application publishers manage inventory and optimise multiple sources of advertising, such as direct ads, house ads, ad network, and real-time bidding, through the MoPub Marketplace.

According to Twitter, the two major trends in the advertising sector currently are the rapid consumer shift toward mobile usage, and the industry shift to programmatic buying.

“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,” the firm said in a blog post.

The firm added that the MoPub team has built a leading mobile ad exchange, and their focus on providing transparency to advertisers and publishers aligns with Twitter’s own values.

“We’ll continue to invest in and improve their core business. In particular, we think there is a key opportunity to extend many types of native advertising across the mobile ecosystem through the MoPub exchange,” the firm added.

Twitter also plans to use MoPub’s technology to build real-time bidding into the Twitter ads platform so that advertisers can easily automate and scale their purchases

MoPub CEO Jim Payne added that in addition to investing in new capabilities for the platform, he believes there are opportunities to bring better native advertising to the mobile ecosystem.

“With the support of the team and resources of Twitter, we’ll be able to move even more quickly towards the realisation of our original vision,” he said.