More mobile advertising acquisitions means more investment in mobile

So mobile internet is finally hitting the big time - with the "Youtube moment" at the end of the last year being the acquisition of admob, closely followed by Apple buying up Quattro Wireless at the start of this year. 

However, it's not just the ad networks that are getting snapped up - already M&A is moving down up value chain into the agency space and down the value chain into the ad optimizers. 

Firstly, RingRing Media, a mobile ad agency and media buyer in London got snapped up by Amobee Systems a few days ago.  The rumoured price was £12m - not bad for a company founded in 2008 and grown to £2m a month in gross revenue with only small investments.  Congratulations to Ben and Harry the co-founders at RingRing. 

Secondly, we learn that the ad optimizer/ ad network aggregator AdMarvel has been bought by Opera.  Ad Marvel started life as a B2C play called Frengo and spun off a service that helps mobile sites and apps to manage their ad inventory through analytics, ad serving and real-time pricing data. 

With Mary Meeker predicting that mobile is the big tech trend of the next decade we can expect more acquisitions like this over the next year, which means more investment at the other end of the pipeline.  VCs and other investors will be more willing to move into mobile now that they can see the big exits happening and real value being created. 

So what are the opportunities in the mobile ad space for startups and investors? Here's a few ideas:

• New types of mobile advertising networks - the first wave of ad networks have all been based on a fairly straightforward CPC, banner and text ad driven model served over a general range of sites.  If you look at the PC-web there are a huge range of different types of ad networks out there, often targeting very specific verticals or offering particular types of inventory.  Is there room for a vertically-focused ad network on mobile?  Similarly, the likes of Greystripe have focused on full-screen rich media ads, but there have got to be other new formats and ideas that can work on mobile. 

• Mobile agencies - with mobile advertising hotting up all the big digital agencies will need to burnish their mobile credentials.  The recession probably held back acquisitions last year but expect 2010 to lead to more M&A in this space.  

• Mobile commerce - retail is still the major un-charted territory on the mobile internet and mobile affiliate marketing is still very under-developed.  At the same time people are becoming more willing to buy on their mobiles and this will create opportunities for new players. 

That's it for now shout out in the comments if you have any views on what the opportunities are. 

Comments

[Sam Granleese]

I definitely think there is a gaping hole in the market for vertical mobile ad networks.

With average cost-per-1000 ad yields still proving to be under-valued (from over supply) there is an opportunity for a sales/technology product that bundles sites together and adds a high-margin premium on top.

Only question is: who will get there first?