IndoorAtlas

Taboola Signals Move to Chinese Market With Baidu Investment

Taboola revealed a multimillion-dollar investment from Baidu to help it enter the Chinese market, with the aim of launching native advertising in China. Taboola CEO Adam Singolda plans to visit Beijing to advance collaboration, while Baidu’s Peter Fang emphasized the potential for the technology to translate to China. Taboola has a history of international expansion, including offices in the United States (HQ), United Kingdom, India, and France, and a Japan entry via a Yahoo Japan partnership. The Baidu investment follows Taboola’s February funding of $117 million. Baidu has also invested in other non-US ventures, indicating a broader international strategy outside the United States.

BitTorrent Courts Ad Dollars; Baidu’s Mobile Tracking

AdExchanger's Thursday roundup surveys notable moves in the ad-tech landscape. BitTorrent is courting advertisers but faces skepticism due to its piracy reputation, with industry voices suggesting rogue or niche targeting as possibilities. Baidu rolled out Baidu Connect, a location-based ad service for nearby mobile devices, as part of its broader O2O push with Dalian Wanda Group and Tencent, and it also signaled a $10 million investment in IndoorAtlas. In B2B advertising, LinkedIn's ad engine is strengthening Starwood Hotels & Resorts' plan to spend $30 million on a social campaign featuring top business customers. Nielsen reports that only 59% of online ad impressions reached their intended audience, a 10% YoY decline as segments become more narrowly defined. Google is advancing AI and fast data processing through a hardware-focused research initiative intended to sustain leadership in search and online advertising. The issue also highlights several hires and press releases across the industry.

Mobile Is Key To Unlocking Store Measurement

Lauren Moores argues that while most purchases happen in brick-and-mortar stores, mobile is becoming essential to measuring in-store impact. The piece notes that ecommerce is only 9% of the $3.25 trillion US retail market, highlighting the continued importance of physical stores. A large share of shoppers (84%) use mobile devices before or during a store visit, and mobile data could help solve attribution challenges by linking online display to offline purchases. Marketers are starting to use in-store location technologies such as iBeacon, IndoorAtlas, and Nomi to determine where customers are in-store and tailor messaging, coupons, and product recommendations. The article cites examples like Hudson's Bay's Lord & Taylor mobile app, which lets users scan print ads and buy items directly, and mentions the historical shift from human counters (Arbitron's passive people meter) to digital measurement, now owned by Nielsen. The piece concludes that mobile is key to solving measurement and attribution in digital advertising.