Google has recently announced that it is acquiring mDialog, which is a video advertising firm from San Francisco. The company has been helping media firms like Fox and NBC for nearly a decade. Their primary service is managing and delivering all types of video advertising to mobile devices including all the major smart phones and tablets. In addition, however, they also push these ads through devices like Roku and x-box streaming.
mDialog’s announcement states, “We’re excited to announce that mDialog is joining the DoubleClick team at Google. We will continue to offer our services, just as we always have, to programmers and distributaries – meaning there are no immediate changes for our existing customers.”
The Google announcement echoed this sentiment, saying “While nothing’s changing for their customers immediately, over time we’ll work with the mDialog team to incorporate their technology and expertise into our DoubleClick product suite. This represents the latest of our ongoing investments in helping brands connect with high-quality video content, like Google Partner Select, our new marketplace for premium programmatic video.”
This move is a clear attempt by Google to regain some of the market share they have lost in mobile search advertising. In 2012, they held 82.8% of this market, but it has dropped to 68.5% in 2013. This is quite a significant loss. Of course, their total revenue continues to go up, but the fact that they are losing share to other companies is undoubtedly concerning.
This move will likely give brands working with Google additional opportunities on how they will display their video ads, though when these updates become available is not yet known.