This article is more than 1 year old

Yahoo! Buys! German! Mobile! Ad! Company!

A time for Actionality

In the ongoing war for online ad dollars, Yahoo! has acquired Actionality, a German firm that specializes in mobile advertising.

"We can confirm the acquisition of Actionality as part of Yahoo!'s ongoing focus on becoming #1 in mobile advertising," said a company spokeswoman. "Actionality’s team and technology will enable Yahoo! to continue to grow our early and strong leadership position in mobile advertising."

The Munich-based Actionality offers technology that splices ads into handheld games and other content specifically designed for mobile devices, including cell phones. The company didn't respond to a request for comment, but we can report that it considers itself "your exclusive source for efficient and effective mobile marketing technologies and solutions."

"Imagine having the opportunity to automatically place rich-media mobile commercials into any mobile content which your target audience uses. Actionality makes this possibility a reality," reads the company's web site. "Actionality focuses on providing you with the opportunity to redefine mobile marketing and how mobile content is branded, distributed, and monetized."

Since the New Year, Yahoo! has done its best to keep pace in the rapidly-growing mobile market. In January, it introduced Yahoo! Go 2.0, a full suite of mobile services, as well as a new mobile search engine: oneSearch. Then, over the next two months, the company unveiled its own platform for mobile display ads and a new suite of back-end tools for advertisers, known as Yahoo! Mobile Publisher Services.

Yahoo! Go 2.0 shrugged off its beta tag in the U.S. at the end of June, and the company is now offering specialized beta versions in 13 countries across the globe.

But arch-rival Google has grabbed an early lead in the mobile market, thanks to the ample mind share it already owns on the desktop. According to the latest numbers from research firm M:Metrics, Google is the most-visited mobile destination in the U.S., reaching 62.48 per cent of the market, while Yahoo! reaches only 33.54 per cent. In the UK, Google's share slips to 30.94 per cent, but Yahoo! also takes a dive - down to 10.97 per cent. That makes Yahoo! the ninth most-visited destination in Britain. ®

More about

More about

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like