Mobile ad network Mobclix has made its first acquisition. The startup is buying up Heartbeat, a cloud-based SaaS that helps iPhone app developers manage and access sales data, crash reporting, ongoing hourly usage stats, reviews and rankings. The acquisition price was not disclosed.
Mobclix bought Heartbeat from app developer Enormego, which launched the software in January 2009. So far Heartbeat has tracked $25 million in paid application downloads with over 3,500 applications using the platform (55 percent of which are paid apps). Heartbeat’s offerings will be folded into Mobclix’s platform to offer Heartbeat’s software to both Android and iPhone app developers. Heartbeat’s sales analytics will be integrated with Mobclix ad revenue data to allows developers to have a visualization of all aspects of an application’s revenue including ad monetization, in-app purchase and paid models. While Heartbeat’s current service only caters to the iPhone app market, its technology will be adapted to serve Android apps as well.
The acquisition makes sense for Mobclix to boost its exchange’s offerings. Mobclix allows app developers to sign up with their ad inventory and ad networks bid for the spots based on age, gender, location, and other factors. The ads being served change automatically, based on which ad network is bidding the highest to reach the users of that particular app. It also lets advertisers buy across a variety of apps based on demographic, geo-targeting, and behavioral characteristics. The startup recently announced a deal to offer Nielsen’s ad targeting data into its ad exchange to enhance ad targeting.
With the acquisitions of AdMob by Google and Quattro Wireless by Apple , ad exchanges and networks like Mobclix, Greystripe and others are working hard to boost the appeal and strength of their products. But according to Gartner, the mobile advertising market will generate $13 billion in revenues by 2013, leaving plenty of possible revenue to go around.