ARCHIVES: This is legacy content from before Marketing Dive acquired Mobile Marketer in early 2017. Some information, such as publication dates, may not have migrated over. Check out the new Marketing Dive site for the latest marketing news.

Cheetah Mobile buys MobPartner in $58M deal to strengthen targeting capabilities

Cheetah Mobile Inc MobPartner

Cheetah snatched the agency ostensibly to boost its application and mobile advertising solutions for its advertisers and brands. This acquisition also strengthens the acquirer's localization and personalization services to clients.

?The world of mobile ads is changing and we?re positioning MobPartner to more easily localize and personalize offerings to mobile consumers so ads reach them at the perfect moment and place,? said Djamel Agaoua, CEO of MobPartner, San Francisco. ?Cheetah Mobile allows us to effectively bring more resources and scale to our existing customer base.

?As the world?s number one mobile utility application developer and the number two Internet and mobile security corporation in China, Cheetah Mobile offers us unparalleled access to new users and target markets,? he said. ?For both Cheetah Mobile and MobPartner, transparency and loyalty have been top priorities. 

?Together, we will improve dramatically the targeting capabilities and the return on investment for our advertisers. Our objective is to build one of the top three mobile advertising platforms in the world.?

The apps created by Cheetah Inc. have more than 340 million users a month. The mobile Internet company focuses on creating optimized content, boosted now with MobPartner's forte in mobile advertising performance. 

Swift deal
Although Cheetah Mobile is located in China and MobPartner was founded in France, the two companies? work is on a global level. 

Cheetah is known for developing apps for smartphones and tablets. 

Some of Cheetah?s apps include Duba Anti-virus, Clean Master, CM Security and Batter Doctor. 

The partnership will focus on what is best for its advertisers and publishers and how to best reach consumers, according to MobPartner. 

Mobile ad effectiveness
While this partnership seems promising, it must compete with successful mobile advertising platforms such as Facebook that have a built-in fan base. 

Target reported that Facebook?s new product ads deliver two times the conversion rate on mobile and has helped the social media giant grab a bigger piece of marketers? growing dynamic retargeting budgets (see more).

Interactive ads seem to be the most effective form of mobile advertising, something which the Cheetah-MobPartner alliance will include in its upcoming efforts. 

The effectiveness of interactive ads was showcased recently by a Time Inc. executive at Mobile Marketer's Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2015 conference where he said that interactive advertising experiences have helped the media brand's mobile ad revenue growth outpace its mobile traffic growth, jumping 100 percent in 2014 year over year (see more).

?Cheetah Mobile has been a trusted partner for a long time, so many of our advertisers already have accessed their engaged audience in apps such as CleanMaster and others,? Mr. Agaoua said. 

?In the near future, we will work closely together to leverage each other?s strengths and create new opportunities and new mobile products and services for our advertisers,? he said.

Final Take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, New York