Pushing value into a digital ad ecosystem - Ben Jeger from Moloco

[Music] We are now joined by Ben Jger from Maloco. How you doing today, Ben?
I'm good, James. Good to see you again.
Yeah, I know. We've spoken a few times in the past and I understand you've got a panel later on today. Is that right?
Absolutely. 5:00 p.m.
So, you've got to stay on it right till the end.
High energy, right? We'll keep it we'll keep it buzzy. So, we've spoken a number of times and to your colleagues as well, but we have to do the little slug line at the beginning. Maloco, what's the elevator pitch?
The elevator pitch for this conference is we are a UA and admon partner for the top gaming companies in the world. Uh we on the one hand help you find users in a profitable way using advanced machine learning and optimizing towards return on ad spend. And on the other hand, we help you monetize through ads using our monetization SDK,

which is something we were talking about earlier. You saying you've rolled that out. It's become popular to the point of you're no longer taking on any additional applicants. Is that right?
That that that's right. We're we're in a bit of a unique position. Um for we we're traditionally known as a DSP, a demand side platform. Um, and we only released uh the monetization SDK in 2024 in in in the early days. And I I I think we it's fair to say that we were the one of the fastest growing monetization SDKs in history um adopted by a lot of the top publishers in in a very short period of time. And we grew so fast that we said, "Okay, let's let's hold on. Let's not onboard no new um publishers." And um I I'm in an in a somewhat awkward position because a lot of people are coming to me in these conference saying, "Hey, what can you do? Are you the person to talk to to to unlock and and

allow us uh into your publisher program?" And for now, um unfortunately, we're we we're on hold. uh we are developing the product further and uh very soon we'll open up uh the floodgates again and we'll invite new publishers into the mix.
Well, it's a good problem to have as far as problems go. Um what do you think is it about this particular version of what you're offering that has proved so successful or so popular? Obviously, there are a number of monetization SDKs available. Is it just the fact that it's generating more more money for people using it? And if so, why? What is it that you're doing that maybe sets you apart a little?
I think it's different in the sense that we were already one of the biggest buyers in the industry. So before we launched our own SDK, we were acquiring uh users from all different exchanges and spending and I I I think we were the

biggest buyer on most exchanges out there. So the the monetization SDK comes with a lot of weight already and that makes it such a good addition to the monetization stack that um publishers have. I I think that's the main uh differentiator. Now we also have uh no interest to actually uh build a we're still advertiser focused. So everything that we do is to drive value to advertisers and so we're not trying to create now a new business line on the monetization side. And I think that mentality also means that we're pushing a lot of value into the ecosystem without extracting a lot as a middleman. Um, and that's that's that that's somewhat unique at at this stage.
That's something people love.

Well, we talked before I think we talked maybe a couple of years ago and it was we were beginning that slight downward trend that the industry had seen for really the first time in gaming's history. Um, we're hoping that we're sort of nearing the end of that and people are trying to be optimistic for next year, but it's still tough times out there. Are you seeing that reflected in the clients that you deal with and also in consumer spend in general? Is it down? Is it up? Are publishers finding it difficult to connect with new users and high value users or is it the same as it's ever been really? So we we have seen similar trend over the last year is a a flattening um of of revenue. Um interestingly that is the the the stagnation is more prominent on Android. iOS is still growing interestingly. Um and when you look at highv value payers that is

very much concentrated in the US. Um so if you look at like the top um highv value payers and and that growth revenue growth it's coming from iOS US to a large extent and and the the numbers are extreme. Um
well I read somewhere that like 60% of all ad spend is targeted at North America basically.
Yeah.
And then you kind of UK is second and then it's much more much smaller increments elsewhere.
Yeah. Uh despite the fact that North America is this huge market and as you say the app store specifically, we're seeing other app stores pop up. There's already a proliferation of them in kind of the main region and China and that sort of thing. But also with the legislation that's being passed in the EU at the moment, yeah, they are trying to introduce this idea that it's no longer two big stores. Web stores are becoming more popular. There all these different ways of publishers getting their product to client and monetizing their clients as well. Does that affect

the way that you approach campaigns? Are there untapped avenues of like user acquisition that you could draw on from different marketplaces or different markets altogether? Yeah, I I think that the alternative app stores that are popping up haven't reached maturity or scale where they are actually driving demand. So they they might and they are starting to become a destination if they offer attractive rev shares more attractive than the the incumbent um stores. So that's that's the way they get interest from publishers. Um however uh the maturity and scale is not there. So so we we are able to drive to specific app stores and and and we do that if if our advertisers want to target a certain destination we can do that. Um but it's more us pushing uh users into that direction uh rather than

us seeing that as a source. However, in in markets uh where you have strong mature app stores already such as Korea for China is a big example and the X Shi store uh is is is big or in in Korea you have one store we're actually um partnering with one store and we are uh part of their monetization solution of uh how showing ads within the store that's powered by Moco as well. So whenever we we see that the European alternative app stores become uh uh mature enough and have the relevant scale, we're ready to support them and to also direct users uh to those uh destinations. You know,
is it a different kind of challenge working with stores or publishers, clients in those different regions? You talk about China for example. When you're talking about monetization, there are lots of different systems in

different countries that follow different legal requirements for example or in main region there's a largely kind of cashbased system for payments rather than everyone having a credit card for example. Do those affect the way in which you you know plan your strategies for those specific regions or can you use kind of a a blanket approach? So we we do have local teams with local knowledge in in all of those markets that you mentioned. Um and that gives us some kind of advantage. But in terms of the technology that's behind it, it's all uh one system. It's machine learning based and then it it it it does adapt to the unique environment but it's not us actively doing tweaking the system. So it's more of a a a a selfarning say uh yeah
so it conveniently does it for you. I think we spoke about this before but the

idea that it's the it's the good kind of machine learning. It's not the, you know, generative everything is AI as it is now like system we have before. And a lot of people have been tred with the brush because machine learning has been around for, you know, decades and people are now calling it AI and now instantly people are a bit wary of it. You know what I mean? Very suspicious.
Um, well, what about 2025 going forward? You're obviously, I presume, you know, new clients and new business and whatnot. Uh, is there anything new that you folks are working on or is there something that you're anticipating as a trend in the year? For example, those legal rulings that are going on in the EU at the moment, trying to break down the monopoly of kind of the App Store and Google Play. It looks like there's whisperings of that happening in the States as well, the biggest market. Do you think that'll have an impact on where users are driven and where you will be driving? I it's difficult uh to to predict the future and I I so so I'm going to focus on like what I know is

going to change in terms of what we control. So we alluded to in at the start of the conversation to the fact that we will open up we open up the uh our push in terms of SDK uh for the ad monetization side. I think that will be a big change and I think I hope that will that will help um the market to improve monetization um uh so so ad monetization will hopefully continue to grow um with with our help and with also other players in the market that are forced to to um just up their game. So I think that is uh going to be uh very promising for publishers. Um I I I think it's interesting to observe what other surfaces there are and what uh crosspollination is possible. Uh be it on the CTV side that's something that we are uh looking at. It's also web to app something that

um we at least um observing and making decisions whether that is uh the best uh use of our resource. But so I I I think there's many possibilities uh but the one that I'm sure of is is uh the ad monetization as dictator.
That's what's working for you and you're sticking with it.
Yes. [Music]