OpenX launches its mobile-first native ad exchange
OpenX Technologies is launching a mobile-focused native ad exchange today that it says will help app and game developers and publishers make a lot more money. — In an event at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, mobile monetization firm OpenX is unveiling Native O|
Context & Ripple Effects
OpenX has been circling this market since its OpenAds days — the ad server that positioned itself against Google back in 2007 — and the mobile-exchange lane was already proven by Opera's Open Mobile Ad Exchange in 2010. What changes with today's MWC announcement is the format: OpenX is betting that native units, not banners, are how in-app inventory gets priced.
The pickup is broad — The Next Web, Marketing Pilgrim, VatorNews and MediaPost all carried the story on the day — which suggests the trade press sees native-plus-mobile as the next battleground for exchanges. One overhang worth flagging: the company's ad-server distribution was confirmed compromised with a remote-code-execution backdoor in August 2013, so supply-side partners weighing the platform will be watching its security posture alongside the new product.
First-order effects
- App and game developers using OpenX gain an immediate way to fill inventory with native units rather than display ads, directly targeting the higher engagement rates native formats command.
- Rival mobile exchanges now face pressure to add native-format support or cede premium in-app placements to OpenX.
Second-order effects
- Brands and agencies buying programmatically get native reach at exchange scale, pulling budget away from direct-sold native deals and compressing the premium publishers could charge for hand-built sponsored content.
Third-order effects
- If native becomes a standard exchange-traded format, the line between editorial content and paid placement gets set by algorithms rather than newsrooms, sharpening the case for industry labeling standards and, eventually, regulatory scrutiny of undisclosed ads.
The trend: Mobile ad exchanges are racing to turn native advertising from a bespoke publisher product into a programmatically traded commodity, with format innovation replacing raw reach as the differentiator.