• by Sara Guaglione , February 8, 2019

Tapjoy, a mobile advertising and app monetization platform, has appointed a new CEO, Jeff Drobick.

Drobick succeeds Steve Wadsworth, who has served as CEO since 2012 and will transition to be chairman of the board. Wadsworth was previously an executive at Disney Interactive Media Group and Walt Disney Internet Group.

“It is a great honor to follow in Steve’s footsteps as we continue to drive innovation and growth for mobile publishers seeking better monetization and advertisers seeking a highly engaged audience,” Drobick stated.

Tapjoy allows advertisers to connect with over 800 million monthly active users through value-exchange advertising.

Its in-app video ads work by popping up after a player completes a level in a mobile game, for example, and the player can opt in to increase their score. They are shown a video ad that initiates a call to action, which can redirect the player to a specific website or app, before the player returns to their game.

Founded in 2007 and based in San Francisco with a dozen international offices, Tapjoy is used by companies including 20th Century Fox, Dollar Shave Club, Nickelodeon, Red Bull and Amazon, as well as app publishers such as Glu Mobile, Ludia, Hothead Games, Playstudios, Jam City and Scopely.

Tapjoy's partners can use its platform to monetize content, grow audiences and reward users, according to the company.

Since 2013, Drobick has served as chief product officer at Tapjoy. He led the company’s overall product vision and strategy, and oversaw product management, design, engineering, devOps and data science teams.

Before joining Tapjoy, Drobick served as CEO of Geeknet Media and also spent nearly 12 years at eBay.

Wadsworth oversaw the company’s acquisitions of 5Rocks, a mobile marketing automation and analytics company, in 2014, and Tapdaq, an advertising mediation and app monetization platform, last year.

Tapjoy claims to have experienced more than two years of “expanding profitability.”

Wadsworth will take over as chairman from Warren Jenson -- president, chief financial officer and executive managing director of international at LiveRamp -- who will remain as an independent board member.

Tapjoy also announced today the promotions and expanded responsibilities of a number of executives, including Shannon Jessup to global chief revenue officer.