Commentary

Available Inventory, Clicks And 'Premium' All Growing In Mobile

Vserv.mobi, a mobile ad network that has recently repositioned itself as a mobile ad exchange, on Wednesday released some data on the “state of [its] exchange.”

Keep in mind this is just one exchange -- and one that has only supported real-time bidding (RTB) for about a month -- but the mini report gives us a good look into the type of growth mobile is seeing.

Vserv says that in the past year, its amount of inventory has increased by 82%. The company says 14% of the ads on its exchange are now available for RTB. We can surmise that figure will grow, considering that the company's RTB platform has only been around for a month.

Click rates have also risen. The company says there are two times the amount of clicks occurring today compared to one year ago, with Windows phones (18.2 times more) leading the way. Android phones see about four times the amount of clicks compared to a year ago, while Apple and “Others” each have 1.2 times more clicks.

The importance of clicks has been debated -- with some saying click rates are all but worthless because of fraud issues -- but I do think it’s noteworthy that the rate at which clicks have grown in the past year has exceeded the rate of new inventory, at least for Vserv.

Perhaps the clicks have increased because Vserv says it houses more “premium” inventory today than one year ago, although what qualifies as “premium” in this case is unclear. According to Vserv, the vast majority of the new “premium” inventory comes from outside of the U.S.

The company says it has 4% more “premium” inventory coming from North America today than one year ago. However, India has 27% more, Latin America 17% more, the Middle East & Africa 15%, Southeast Asia 14%, and the “rest of Asia” 10%. Europe as a whole has 13% more.

Tech and computing-related ads dominate on the Vserv mobile exchange, accounting for 32% of the spend. Hobbies & Interests -- in which games are included -- accounts for 18%. Style & Fashion accounts for another 18%, while Arts & Entertainment sees 15% of the share.

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