• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, October 14, 2015

Mobile ad tech company AppLift has launched an internal mobile task force to help with user acquisition and engagement today.

AppLift CIO Vaibhav Gupta will head up the San Francisco-based program, which will be primarily focused on ad relevancy, data privacy, ad viewability and ad fraud.

Gupta, who joins the project with some experience under his belt, was previously CEO of white-label mobile DSP Bidstalk (acquired by AppLift in May 2015), and CTO of Airpush India. Gupta stated that it is incumbent on established companies to continue to push technology forwards and to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive in order to tackle the industry’s key challenges.

Talent has been assembled both internally and externally. The team will regularly consult with external stakeholders and key decision makers “to facilitate greater impact and influence over the mobile ad tech industry as a whole,” according to a statement.

Giants like Google and Facebook, which can incorporate companies’ first-party data into their already massive stores to serve more relevant ads, are already tackling ad relevance.

Official ad viewability standards for mobile are still forthcoming, and the MRC is working with Facebook, Nielsen, IAB and a number of other brands and agencies to develop them. Google and Facebook also recently announced that they were offering 100% viewability (with no time limit), and Facebook is starting to allow third-party verification.

 AppLift Labs has already begun two projects and will unveil the first results beginning in 2016.