• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, October 11, 2016

The foundations of the ad-tech landscape quickly shift as supporting technologies make their own leaps. Some businesses lose their edge, and others rise out of the ether, based largely on where consumers are moving online, which devices they spend their time on -- and, of course, financing interest.

“The ad-tech space is still very fragmented,” Jerry Hug, CEO of mobile ad-tech firm SITO, told Real-Time Daily. Despite a recent $10 million funding round announced by SITO, Hug affirms that “it will continue to be difficult for ad-tech companies to access the public market.”

There have been some recent bright spots, however, that might be signs of what is to come. The Trade Desk recently went public (on  Sept. 21), seeming to solidify the staying power of programmatic and real-time bidding technologies.

“We are now entering the era of Ad Tech 2.0,” explains Hug. “Companies are benefiting from the mistakes and challenges that older companies had to work through.”

A few trends frame this new iteration. “First of all, investors are now much smarter in the ad-tech space,” said Hug. “The space is increasingly focused on mobile, as consumers amplify their usage of smartphones and tablets. Companies that are mobile-first or optimize for mobile have a leg up when soliciting funding.”

Other realities put downward pressures on ad-tech companies, including advances in ad blocking, the rise of ad fraud and the constant churn of new ad-tech start-ups.