Use of mobile-web header bidding rises 1,395% in APAC: PubMatic

The APAC region's share of global mobile web header bidding activity has skyrocketed by 1,395% year over year, from a 1% share in Q1 2017 to a 32% share in Q1 2018, according to the Q1 2018 Quarterly Mobile Index (QMI) from Pubmatic.

The QMI is based on the analysis of over 10 trillion advertiser bids flowing each month through the PubMatic platform, according to Osbaldo Franco, director of marketing research at Pubmatic.

The report concluded that overall header bidding adspend doubled, compared to Q1 2017. The growth was primarily driven by the news vertical, which represented more than 73% of how publishers monetize inventory in the US.

In the APAC region, the worldwide share of monetized mobile impressions rose from 11% in Q1 2017 to 23% in Q1 2018, driven by investments from APAC businesses in the real estate, parenting, and business finance verticals.

India registered the highest growth rate for mobile video adspend, notching up nearly tenfold growth year-on-year. Meanwhile, 37% of the video impressions generated globally in Q1 2018 were from mobile, compared to just 15% in Q1 2017.

"Although brand advertisers continue to voice concerns about the quality of programmatic video inventory, their growing investment on this format acknowledges that the benefits outweigh the risks," said Franco in the report. "Nevertheless, publishers large and small must continue to provide ever greater inventory quality and fraud protections to retain their trusted status with advertisers."

The proliferation of open exchanges and private marketplaces were also cited as factors driving growth worldwide, though not necessarily for the APAC region.