Another notable movement in the mobile advertising space, and an ironic one, given Google’s recent Admob acqusition: mobile advertising company inmobi has poached a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executive to be its new European head.
Rob Jonas, who had previously been Google’s director of strategic partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa, will be establishing an office in London for the Bangalore-based ad network.
No comment from Rob Jonas himself on why he left Google, especially at a time when the company was just starting to get more serious about mobile advertising…
“This was not about leaving Google. It was about being attracted to inmobi,” Rob Jonas told paidContent:UK. “I genuinely feel that mobile is coming together from an advertising perspective in the digital economy. It’s still an untapped area.”...
But he also acknowledges the competition ahead of him: “Admob is a great business,” he said. “Google doesn’t tend to make mistakes in its acquisitions.”
At Google, Jonas was working on Google’s syndication and partnership deals with third party sites in the region, and mobile was not directly in his remit. Before Google, Jonas was at Yahoo!Europe, which he joined with its acquisition of Overture in October 2003.
inmobi, which allows advertising clients to buy ads in 22 markets today, has funding from Kleiner Perkins and Ram Shriram, who had been an angel investor in Google. It’t not releasing revenue figures but says it is currently profitable and claims to be the second-largest ad network in Europe today. Jonas declined to say how many people he intends to hire in Europe: “It’s a work in progress,” he said.
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