On behalf of all of the founding members, I am thrilled to announce the formation of OpenRTB Mobile, a committee within the OpenRTB consortium dedicated to increasing the adoption of real-time bidding (RTB) in mobile advertising. The committee’s goal is to set standards on non-competitive features and functionality, in order to minimize the resources required to adopt the technology and maximize the output of resources dedicated to RTB innovation. Our first initiative is to set standards for the RTB protocol, which determines how buyers and sellers’ platforms communicate.
We’ve seen the online advertising space experience unprecedented adoption of RTB—with exchange-based ad buying projected to double this year. The expectation is that mobile won’t be too far behind. However, if the mobile industry has taught us anything, it’s that fragmentation and customization are the enemies of technology adoption and efficiency. We’ve taken that lesson to heart by setting standards in mobile RTB’s early days to avoid the scalability challenges that have plagued other worthwhile, but fractured technologies. This is truly the first step towards a more efficient and innovative mobile media marketplace.
As Ben Trenda, VP REVV Marketplace Development of Rubicon Project, reinforces in his post on OpenRTB, publishers should rest assured that open standards do not mean complacent partners lacking innovation. On the contrary, these established RTB protocols will enable supply-side platforms, such as Nexage, to continue to focus their efforts on innovating products and features that create real value, rather than spinning cycles on integrations made more complex by a lack of standard communication protocols.
Indeed, standardization can clear the path for innovation. That’s why the founding members established OpenRTB Mobile: to create RTB standards that will undoubtedly transform the mobile advertising industry. And at Nexage, we believe that these standards will help propel publishers’ mobile advertising business to the next level as well.