AD NETWORKS
Billups | February 22, 2022
Billups, the largest privately held out-of-home (OOH) technology and managed services company in the U.S., has acquired the assets of Outchart, a full-stack software provider for the digital out-of-home marketplace. The acquisition follows Billups' recent purchases of Ads on Top in 2022 and MacDonald Media in 2020. The company's growing footprint now covers 19 U.S. and five European markets with over 120 employees.
Together, Billups and Outchart will work to deliver on the vision of innovative, data-driven and single-stop technology solutions for out-of-home media advertisers, agencies and media owners. At the time of the acquisition, Outchart offered digital OOH media owners a cloud-based software solution built by a roster of OOH and technology experts. The software provider operated in the U.S. and UAE, helping owners to automate campaign and screen management workflow to leverage programmatic revenues.
"All my life, I've been passionate about bringing businesses and developers together to create platforms that automate everyday workflows. I'm excited to join forces with Billups and their deep data and technology bench and OOH media experts," said Igor Kuznetsov, Chief Product Officer at Outchart.
"I am so thrilled to become a part of the Billups team, where so many beautiful minds work under the same roof to deliver best-in-class digital OOH, programmatic products and services," said Dmitry Semenov, Chief Business Development Officer at Outchart.
We are excited for our partnership with Outchart to bring us closer to transforming the out-of-home industry into a truly unified experience. Combining the strengths of our companies and relentless commitment to advanced technology and programmatic opportunities allow us to accelerate our business forward — not just domestically but globally."
Benjamin Billups, Co-founder of Billups.
Rob MacMillan and David Tolliver of Castlewood Advisors exclusively represented Outchart in the sale of the business.
About Billups
Billups is revolutionizing the out-of-home media experience. Blending art and science with advanced technology, we lead the industry with scientific targeting, accurate out-of-home measurement and an innovative AI-powered recommendation engine. Founded in 2003, Billups helps the world's leading brands navigate and optimize their out-of-home investment.
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Vidy | December 29, 2020
Vidy, the world's first blockchain-powered decentralized video advertisement network, has launched its own crypto assets, called VidyCoin.
Vidy's Founder and CEO, Patrick Colangelo said, "At Vidy, we put the power of your data and earning potential back on your hand. So, users can earn money while watching video and surfing the web, right at home."
When users play a video ad, they will be rewarded with VidyCoin, which can be utilized for buying goods in the Vidy organization, running advertisements or gaining admittance to publishers' premium features.
In late November 2020, Vogue Singapore turned into the principal significant distributer to use VidyCoin to remunerate clients and force nearby buys. Inside five days, 30 imperceptible miniature recordings implanted by Vogue Singapore got 400 million seconds of dynamic perspectives, and the VIDY Wallet got 78,000 new registrations.
Cognizant that if these numbers were replicated across Vidy's 100+ publishers, it may pack the Ethereum network, the team changed over VidyCoin into a double token ecosystem, namely VIDY and VIDYX.
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LinkedIn | May 09, 2022
LinkedIn has decided to restrict the reach of several types of posts in user feeds. In addition, it has agreed to update its algorithm and ranking of content to ensure that the users get improved relevancy in their feed.
The users on LinkedIn are currently bothered by the low quality, irrelevant, political and engagement baiting content. The users have also been observed to witness excessive polls. Therefore, LinkedIn will offer controls to the platform users for their preferred content choices to achieve the targeted approach.
For the past six consecutive quarters, LinkedIn has been reporting the peak levels of engagement growth. And as the pandemic is being washed down, the interactions on LinkedIn seem to have picked up some traction. However, as the platform does serve the attention economy, it gets utilized for 'growth hacks' and algorithm manipulation to get the maximum content performance. While one may consider these practices fair to achieve brand awareness goals, when these tricks become the trend to be followed by the masses, it negatively affects the user experience.
LinkedIn has started to make the following changes in its feeds.
What users can get control over:
"I don't want to see this" option: Users will be able to opt out of the irrelevant content from their feed if they come across it. In addition, the three dots of any post will let the users submit feedback about that post.
"I don't want to see Political Content" option: As it suggests, users can report the political content and choose not to see such content. Currently, this option will be provided to the users in the U.S.
In the LinkedIn blog post for these recent updates by Linda Leung Director of Product Management at LinkedIn, she states:
"We heard from some of you that you don't want to see political content. To fix this, we're testing a way to give you the option to reduce political content in your feed. While we're only testing currently in the U.S., based on feedback we receive, we may further develop the feature and expand it to more regions and languages."
Source: LinkedIn
What users will see more of in their feed:
Updated and relevant content from the user's network: LinkedIn will focus on filtering out the content which is not of interest to the user. For someone seeing a comment congratulating someone's job change may not be helpful; such interactions in one's feed will be reduced.
"Staying up to date on your network is a key part of the feed, but that doesn't mean you need (or want!) to see all the activity from every single one of your connections. For example, you may not get a lot of value from seeing a connection's comment on someone else's post about a job change if you don't know that other person. That's why we'll be showing you more targeted activity from your network, and where you'll be more likely to join the conversation, too."
LinkedIn Blogpost
News and insights: The users will see more information-rich content coming from industry experts and thought leaders. LinkedIn says they have been told by many that the platform audience cares to hear from the industry leaders and experts to get useful insights.
What users will see less of in their feed:
Low-quality content: Misleading engagement baiting content will be hammered down, and it will not get any help from the LinkedIn algorithm.
"We've seen a number of posts that expressly ask or encourage the community to engage with content via likes or reactions – posted with the exclusive intent of boosting reach on the platform. We've heard this type of content can be misleading and frustrating for some of you. We won't be promoting this type of content and we encourage everyone in the community to focus on delivering reliable, credible and authentic content.", from LinkedIn Blogpost.
Unprofessional interactions/conversations: To ensure a constructive environment on the platform, LinkedIn is investing in the teams, tools, and technology to add value to the user's professional journey.
LinkedIn said in its blogpost,
"We work hard to keep the conversations and content on your feed safe and constructive to deliver the best possible experience for you. This includes taking action on content and profiles that violate our Professional Community Policies."
And lastly, the polls: LinkedIn has received somewhat discouraging feedback regarding polls from the community. Therefore, LinkedIn will ensure only to display the relevant polls to the users.
LinkedIn has promised to improve the content quality and experience on the platform. In the concluding remark, the LinkedIn Blogpost states:
"We look forward to sharing more updates on how we're improving the content quality experience, so that you continue to have a safe, productive, and trusted experience whenever you come to LinkedIn."
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