After releasing Ura Maki & Sushi earlier this year, Appsfire announced its 3rd mobile ad format, Sashimi, which allows Mobile app developers to create newsfeed-style ads inside their apps. Similar to Appsfire’s other ad formats, the ads are primarily for other apps, and draw content from the images submitted to the App Store preview and description. The ad format marks a certain dedication to Appsfire’s new line of business, after it opted to shut down its Discovery app from the App Store last year in order to focus on its mobile AdTech business line.
In short, Sashimi mimicks promoted tweets & sponsored posts from Facebook, so now any mobile app developer building an information feed into their app can easily integrate ads (which Appsfire say have a 25% conversion rate). Appsfire’s stance in the mobile AdTech space has been that apps shouldn’t disrupt the experience, nor should they seek to trick the user into clicking on the ad – instead, Appsfire allows mobile app developers to provide seamless integration via Appsfire’s SDK, and allows publishers to promote their app.
As we noted last year, Appsfire has carved out a great position for themselves, as AdTech, and particularly mobile AdTech, is picking up in France. With Criteo’s recent acquisition of email marketing solution Tedemis & their pre-IPO acquisition of AD-X which allowed them to launch a mobile solution, one wouldn’t be far off in assuming that Apps will be a future endeavor for Criteo.
This news was originally relayed on TechCrunch, so hat tip to them.