Chartboost Marketplace Claims To Be Ad Network Alternative

San Francisco-based Chartboost announced its direct-deal mobile game marketplace on Monday, which differs from traditional ad networks by allowing developers to sell ads directly. According to the company, its platform uses fully customizable, white-labeled full-screen interstitial ads that let developers cross-promote their other titles. What makes the service unique is that developers can also sell advertising real estate on their own games directly, rather than relying on an ad network to populate them. The marketplace is "like a dating site for mobile publishers, where they can find each other and do advertising deals directly, on their own terms with no mediation," described Chartboost CEO Maria Alegre. "Top-100 app developers can find publishers ... that will spend thousands of dollars to buy traffic on specific weekends, and those developers can make their direct deals during the time that their game spends in the charts." The SDK can be used for free for developers wishing to cross-promote their own titles or directly sell real estate in their games, though the company charges CPC or CPIs to promote a title within its proprietary network. More information is available on Chartboost's newly-launched website.