Adam Singolda, CEO and Founder of Taboola
What do you predict will be a positive trend in the mobile ecosystem next year?
“Video will be the main driver for the growth of the open web, and specifically of mobile. Mobile apps will grow at a fast pace and with it the revenue that is generated from in-app ads. User data will become more accessible on both open web on mobile and on apps, and advertisers will benefit from being able to reach specific target audiences in a more efficient way”.
What do you predict will be a negative trend/fading trend in the mobile ecosystem next year?
“Traditional Display, which is still a big part of the revenue pie for publishers, will see a bigger decline as the web moves to mobile first or mobile only. The open web is currently at a significant disadvantage versus the walled garden in a mobile world when it comes to connectivity, and a good user experience – we need to change that”.
What was, in your opinion, the most important event/deal/trend in the app economy in 2017?
“Big becomes bigger. The increased power of the walled gardens globally is very noticeable, from WeChat, to Facebook and Snapchat going after a future where the internet is mainly experienced within their apps”.
Elad Natanson, Founder & CEO, Appnext
Wow, I think that the distinguished group of ad tech talents above covered it all. We are all looking for the next technology and finding ways to engage users while understanding that our industry has evolved and matured—making the process of getting apps out there, and growing its user base while maintaining loyalty is getting trickier and more challenging. Fraud is still a problem to be solved, but at least it is an obstacle everyone is aware of and not hiding away. So, part of “growing up” is understanding how to overcome the hardships. But overall, the future looks bright and there are more technological solutions and creative thinking that will be harnessed to better address the challenges ahead of us.
Some of what we have learned over the past year is that we are using apps more than ever, but we are installing fewer. If in 2013, we were installing 6.4 apps; in 2016 we were installing only 1.3 (depends on the specific report) but at the same time, the time spent within apps increased in 2017. The run rate of revenue spend generated by app developers is going to hit $60 billion. The narrative has changed from ‘which apps am I installing to which apps should I use’ and users want to understand which apps serves them best.
In Mobile, what really matters is not necessarily who the user is but what’s his or her timeline, meaning what is he or she doing right now? What moments are best to target this individual user? The answers to these questions provide us a way to understand the users’ behaviors, in order to serve them the right ad at the right time.
Positive trend in the mobile ecosystem next year –
Instant apps. We stopped installing desktop software when web browsers had a proper access point (search, links etc). We will stop installing new apps when we have access to the services (games, shops etc.) from a proper access point and can operate them instantly. Who wins these access points?
My predictions on a negative or fading trend in the mobile ecosystem next year –
Mobile ad fraud, is, of course a negative trend in our industry. However, a positive fading trend I see and expect to continue seeing is the decline of it. Thanks to several companies within the attribution funnel, many of the fraud tactics are early spotted and prevented. There’s a growing understanding and highlights of the good and bad actors and contributing media companies can only benefit from it. On the same note, I do hope that attribution will keep its balance and accuracy and not take a hit (false positives) due to that. We certainly don’t want attribution to benefit the duopoly by default but the unique, sometimes niche, ad platforms who contribute the advertising partners and to all the developers and publishers in the ecosystem.
The most important event/deal/trend in the app economy in 2017 –
2017 started the battle of the assistants. In mobile – Google Assistant, Bixby, Siri, FB messenger and outside the mobile device. In browser we have one assistant, one text box to control them all (97% of them) but in mobile, it’s still very fragmented. Right now, our mobile desktop(s) have a lot of unused apps and no one place to find what can we do with them right now. There starts the battle for the assistant. In this competition there is no one winner but who controls the bigger share of our day to day actions. Big discovery challenge for us users, very rewarding discovery solution for us tech companies.
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