Chartboost’s app cross-promotion service passes 1 billion impressions
Mobile game cross-promotion service Chartboost said it has served over one billion interstitial ad impressions since its launch nine months ago.
Launched in May 2011 by former employees of Tap Tap Tap Revenge developer Tapulous, Chartboost allows game developers to trade cross-promotion services directly, advertising games from one studio in the games of another through full-screen interstitial ads.
As user acquisition costs continue to rise, Chartboost is positioning its services as a cheaper way for developers to promote their games and monetize from ads without having to paying a revenue share to a traditional mobile advertising network. According to Chartboost, its ads are now seen in over a thousand apps on iOS and Android.
The company is still a relatively small player in a very competitive market with more mature players. There are more traditional players in display advertising like InMobi and Millennial, which is enroute to an initial public offering. Then there are the earlier wave of acquired companies like Google’s Admob and Apple’s iAd. Then there are the alternative monetization companies, which have a larger footprint in the gaming community, like Tapjoy and Flurry. While Admob rarely shares data now that it is owned by Google, a year ago it was doing 2 billion ad requests a day. So Chartboost has a long way to go, despite its promising start.
The company has been keeping itself busy, and has been aggressively expanding its network. In November, it signed a deal with TinyCo and brought its services to Android in December. Last month the company revealed it was launching Korean, Mandarin and Japanese versions of its platform and had sealed partnerships with Com2US, Nexon and Devsisters. Chartboost is now looking to bring European developers into its network, inviting developers to contact the company at the upcoming Casual Connect Europe and the Mobile World Congress events.
Last year the company closed a $2 million round of Series A funding from Translink Capital and XG Ventures.
May 3rd, 2012 at 4:18 pm
[...] Although already successful on Facebook, LifeStreet faces some stiff competition in the mobile advertising space. There are established players like Google’s AdMob, Apple’s iAd, ValueClick owned Greystripe and the newly public Millennial Media to contend with. There are also well-funded independents like InMobi, which is backed with $200 million from Japanese conglomerate Softbank, and JumpTap which has raised $94 million in total. The company will also been going head-to-head against more niche service companies like PlayHaven and Chartboost. [...]