When I discovered AdMob had bought mobile ad “mediator” AdWhirl I fired off some questions to Jason Spero, VP & GM, North America at AdMob. He got back to me late Friday and here’s a short Q&A about the acquisition via email.
Q: Why did AdMob decide to buy AdWhirl?
A: The acquisition of AdWhirl will enable AdMob to help drive more transparency in the marketplace. Our biggest priority is to help the mobile app ecosystem thrive, and in turn to maximize long-term revenue opportunities for developers. Providing choice and control for developers on where and how ads run furthers that goal.
Q: What technology or capability does it offer to AdMob that you didn’t have?
A: Acquiring AdWhirl was a speed-to-market decision. We could’ve built a mediation solution ourselves, but buying AdWhirl allows us to put an open, transparent, unbiased product into the market in the coming weeks.
Q: Will AdWhirl remain an aggregator going forward? If not, what will change?
A: AdMob will incorporate AdWhirl’s existing publisher tools and introduce a new and enhanced open source mediation solution within the coming weeks. New levels of openness and transparency will be the key changes. In the meantime, developers can continue to use the AdWhirl mediation solution as they always have.
Q: Is this the beginning of an AdMob “exchange”?
A: Yes. We understand how important mediation is as a tool for application developers, and we’re committed to providing developers flexibility to allocate their inventory and maximize monetization. We want developers to have access to something that hasn’t existed in the market to date: Mediation tools that are open, unbiased and transparent.