TubeMogul stakes claim as ‘first independent DSP’ in China as it announces Shanghai and Chengdu offices
TubeMogul officially opened the doors to its China operations at an event in Shanghai today, after spending time growing its Shanghai office to six people and its R&D office in Chengdu to 50.
TubeMogul launches Shanghai office
China now accounts for its second biggest development hub, after its US R&D office, which is said was a commitment to localising the technology for client and partner needs in China.
According to TubeMogul MD for Greater China, Jeffery Zheng, independence and transparency has been welcomed by clients in China.
“We opened in the Chinese market this year and so we now work with several brands and agencies. We’ve had a positive response as we are the first independent DSP in the market,” he said.
He added that one of the key reasons for opening was that existing global clients were calling for a local partner that they could work with.
“Global clients needed a partner in China and they weren’t seeing local companies that were transparent,” he said.
Since launch the company now has over 15 brand and agency clients in the Greater China region, including Airbnb, Samsung, Acer, Lilith, ChuKong and Laneige.
The event in Shanghai will show case studies with some of its clients and marks the start of a series of educational events by the business to help clients and potential clients understand the benefits of cross-screen buying.
According to Zheng, education will be a focus for TubeMogul in the near-term, while Daniel Schotland, chief client officer at TubeMogul also spoke to The Drum about the launch and said; “China and Asia is a major part of our business.”
Having been in the market quietly for a while, TubeMogul also presented trends and findings at its event today. The findings tally with trends TubeMogul VP Asia Susan Salop shared with The Drum in June about the programmatic market in China.
She said at the time; “You don’t have as much paid content, it is all monetised through advertising. There are three or four ads before content online, which you wouldn’t see if in other markets. Users are used to it. Most of the content is professional as there are strict laws around media and video, so you don’t see as much UGC quality video. We think that can be good for advertisers, it tends to be premium and professional.”
A theme to all three executive’s views on launching in China, which is reflected in the investment in 50 development staff in Chengdu, is that it needs to be approached thoroughly.
This sentiment has been echoed by other West Coast tech businesses operating in Asia. Google has recently moved into a new space in Singapore, which will now house more development staff so that it can better localise its mobile products for its ‘next billion users’. Apple has also just committed to opening an R&D operation in China as it looks to reverse its luck in the country.