With today’s announcement of Facebook’s mobile ad network, you might assume that it poses a threat to Twitter’s ad efforts, particularly MoPub, the mobile ad company it acquired last year.
The difference, however, is that MoPub isn’t a network — it helps mobile publishers manage multiple ad networks like iAd, AdMob, and yes, the Facebook Audience Network. That doesn’t mean MoPub and Facebook’s network will definitely never, ever compete at all, because Facebook could potentially pursue exclusive relationships with publishers. But generally speaking, from a MoPub perspective, Facebook should just be another network in the system, and another way for its publishers to make money.
There are more details about how Facebook’s network can be integrated with mediation services on this developer page.
After today’s announcement, Twitter’s Kevin Weil tweeted, “Excited to see Facebook’s FAN. Fits naturally w/in @MoPub’s ad network mediation platform and will help make MoPub pubs more $$. More soon!” While competing companies often try to portray this sort of news as complementary or validating, in this instance that really does seem to be the case.
Update: There are some additional details in this post from MoPub’s Jim Payne.