Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Ad Tech |
Founded | 2005 |
Headquarters | New York, New York, U.S. |
Key people | Sameer Sondhi (CEO) |
Services | RTB, Online Advertising, Supply-Side Platform, Mobile Advertising |
Parent | Verve Group |
Website | smaato |
Smaato (now part of Verve Group) is a platform for digital advertising technology and advertisement serving. Smaato's self-serve omnichannel monetization solution allows publishers to manage their complete advertising stack in a single location. Monetization technology for advertising enables publishers to maintain free content.
Overview
Smaato was established in 2005 by Ragnar Kruse and Petra Vorsteher. Smaato gets its name from the Japanese word for "smart". The Empire State Building in New York City is home to Smaato's headquarters. Smaato has offices in Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Seoul, Pune, Istanbul, Madrid, and Beijing. The company has over 190 employees from more than 40 countries.
History
Smaato was established in 2005 and one year later introduced its mobile supply-side platform (SSP). In 2012, Smaato launched its real-time bidding ad exchange. Thereafter, the company's focus shifted towards mobile acquisition and expansion of its automation platform's self-service aspect.
The Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX), a comprehensive publisher ad server, was launched by the company in 2015. The platform offers app developers and digital publishers the ability to profit from their properties immediately by employing real-time data to send targeted consumers to advertisers.
The next year, Smaato was picked by Google and incorporated into the AdMob and DoubleClick for Publishers platforms, through SDK-less mediation. Later in 2016, Smaato further developed its products for the demand side of mobile advertising. Smaato's Demand Platform (SDX) provided mobile ad traffic demand partners with increased flexibility and control. In 2016, Beijing-based Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication Group acquired Smaato for $148 million.
In 2018, the company collaborated with Amazon Publisher Services (APS) to give demand partners within the app the ability to access Amazon's Transparent Ad Marketplace inventory.
In 2021, Smaato was acquired by Verve Group, a subsidiary of MGI – Media and Games Invest SE (MGI).
Innovation
Smaato is currently focusing on leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning. In May 2018, their Automated Traffic Curation (ATC) product was reported to significantly reduce costs of programmatic bidding for demand-side platforms (DSPs). The machine learning technology filters out less relevant inventory before sending a bid request to a demand partner's platform, thus saving time and reducing expenses related to data processing.
The majority of Smaato's revenues currently come from the US, but the company expects a significant increase in the Chinese market in the coming years. In March 2021, the company introduced an OTT solution within its Smaato Publisher Platform (SPX) and carried out Server-Side Ad Insertion in-house.
In July 2021, Smaato was acquired by Media and Games Invest. Together with Verve Group, Smaato completes the tech stack with omnichannel offerings across web, in-app, DOOH, and CTV.
See also
References
- "Smaato Joins Verve Group, Expanding Both Platforms' Capabilities". Ein Presswire News. July 15, 2021.
- Preuß, Olaf (2018-07-15). "Mobile Werbung von Smaato: weltweit auf 1,1 Milliarden Handys". Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "Smaato introduces SPX, a free publisher ad server designed for mobile". Business of Apps. 2015-01-28. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "SDK-less Mediation: An easier way to mediate". Google. 2016-02-16. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "Smaato launches new Demand Platform for optimised mobile ad traffic for demand partners". Business of Apps. 2016-07-26. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- Russel, Jon (2016-06-09). "Mobile ad tech firm Smaato acquired by China-based group for $148m". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
- "Smaato integrates with Amazon Publisher Services". Mobile Marketer. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- Hercher, James (2021-07-14). "MGI's Verve Group Adds Smaato For $170M, Scales Up For Post-Consolidation Ad Tech". AdExchanger. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
- "SSP Smaato adds machine learning for directing inventory to DSPs". MarTech Today. 2018-10-23. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "GFM Nachrichten: Machine Learning von Smaato reduziert Kosten beim Medienkauf". archiv.gfm-nachrichten.de. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- Preuß, Olaf (2018-07-15). "Mobile Werbung von Smaato: weltweit auf 1,1 Milliarden Handys". Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- "Smaato Launches OTT Solution Providing Publishers Complete Control Over Their OTT Monetisation Strategy". Martechvibe. 2021-03-10. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
- "Media, Marketing & Commerce Investment Series". exchangewire. 2021-08-26. Retrieved 2021-12-07.