It was just earlier today that I was talking all about how important mobile advertising is to Twitter. Then, lo and behold, the company makes the point for me!
The company went and bought mobile ad retargeting startup TapCommerce, it was revealed in a blog post on Tuesday.
No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but a report from ReCode, who broke the news of the acquisition earlier in the day, pegs it at roughly $100 million. Vator has reached out to Twitter to confirm the price and we will update if we learn more.
As you probably suspected, Twitter sees the acquisition as part of its larger mobile advertising strategy, which has also included the purchase of advertising exchange MoPub last year, and has also included mobile app install ads, which launched globally on Tuesday.
“Since the announcement of our acquisition of MoPub last September, we’ve been laying out our vision for how advertising across the mobile ecosystem can work better for marketers, app developers, and (most importantly) users,” Richard Alfonsi, VP, Global Online Sales at Twitter, wrote.
“We’re now excited to announce one more important piece of this vision: we’ve agreed to acquire TapCommerce, a leader in mobile retargeting and re-engagement advertising.”
TapCommerce is a service that enables real-time programmatic mobile ad buying across multiple exchanges. By adding TapCommerce’s capabilities, Twitter said, it “will be able to offer mobile app marketers more robust capabilities for app re-engagement, tools and managed service solutions for real-time programmatic buying, and better measurement capabilities.”
Advertising, and mobile, have become extremely important to Twitter. Of the $250 million Twitter made in revenue in the first quarter of 2014, advertising accounted for $226 million. In all, mobile advertising revenue was approximately 80% of total advertising revenue. Adding TapCommerce helps Twitter gain in both areas.
From the point of view of TapCommerce, meanwhile, that company gets the resources of a company of Twitter’s size behind it. In a separate blog post, Brian Long, CEO and co-founder of TapCommerce, wrote about why his company and Twitter such a good match.
“Our focus on creating engaging brand experiences for mobile consumers aligns perfectly with Twitter’s product and core values, making TapCommerce a natural fit in Twitter’s expanding mobile advertising stack,” he said.
While both Twitter and TapCommerce seem eager to join forces, that is not happening just yet; Long made it clear that TapCommerce, will, for the time being at least, remain independent.
“For our existing customers, your TapCommerce experience will not change. Being a part of the Twitter team will allow us to dedicate more resources to developing our product and expanding our services, so that you can continue to deliver even more value from your campaigns,” he wrote.
Founded in 2012, TapCommerce reaches over 50,000 apps. The company has raised nearly $12 million in funding, including $10 million in Series A funding November of last year.
Investors in the company include Bain Capital Ventures, RRE Ventures, Nielsen Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Eniac Ventures, and Nextview Ventures.
(Image source: tapcommerce.tumblr.com)
