Twitter to acquire Namo Media to beef up mobile monetisation

Microblogging giant Twitter is in the process of acquisition of Namo Media, a San Francisco-based mobile native advertisement start-up that creates a more seamless and less intrusive ad experience for users.

In a statement, Twitter Inc said, "We believe strongly that all app developers large and small should be able to monetize their applications without sacrificing the user experience. In our conversations with the Namo Media team, it became clear we share a vision for how native advertising can improve the state of mobile app monetization for marketers, app publishers, and users."

In confirmation of the sale, Namo Media said its technology combined with MoPub would offer a more powerful platform to generate revenue for customers while maintaining an amazing user experience.

"If you're an existing publisher partner looking for more information on how to take advantage of these future capabilities, we'll reach out to help you transition to MoPub's native ads platform," Namo Media stated.

According to IPG Media, native ads were viewed for the same time duration as editorial content and were much more likely to be shared than banner ads.

Native ads had been found to be more engaging than sponsored or banner ads or even advertorials, which made them an effective tool for advertisers to reach an audience, since they tend to be less obviously an ad than most advertorials.

Twitter would integrate Namo Media to its MoPub mobile ad-exchange, which the company acquired in October last year for approximately $350 million in order to beef up its advertising business ahead of its initial stock offering, (See: Twitter acquires mobile advertising firm MoPub for a reported $350 mn).

Namo Media's native mobile platform would help Twitter consolidate its position for attracting more advertising dollars as competition from the likes of Facebook, Google and Pinterest increased. 

The micro-blogging site's top line was significantly driven by ad revenues, which contributed 90.2 per cent of revenues in the first quarter of 2014.

Mobile advertising revenues accounted for over 80 per cent of total advertising revenue in the quarter, up from 60 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

The company launched several new products for advertisers during the quarter and allowed  marketers to create tailored audiences from email lists and customer relationship databases.

The micro-blogging network also enabled advertisers to target TV conversations for Spanish-language television and connect with users through Promoted Accounts in search.

While the company's management remained optimistic about future user growth, slowing user base remained a major concern as it could keep advertisers away from the service, thereby hurting top-line growth.