Amazon has unveiled a new advertising platform to be used by developers of mobile applications, which is seen as a move by the largest online retailer to be able to grab a larger share in the smartphone advertising market that is currently being dominated by Google and Facebook.
The new platform will allow developers to promote the apps they create on Android-based devices, as well as tablets made by Amazon itself. The price of the campaigns begins at $100 for the developers.
Amazon then receives a payment for every time a user chooses to click on an advertisement that is displayed on the system.
"We work with many developers to support merchandising and advertising across our platforms and devices," said Amazon spokeswoman Lyn Hart, adding that the company realized that a great number of developers could find the advertising and merchandising that Amazon could offer as beneficial to them.
Amazon is currently not a big name in the mobile advertising industry in the United States, which is worth a massive $28.7 billion. The company has a market share of less than one percent, compared with the 35 percent share that Google owns and the 17 percent share that Facebook holds, according to data by EMarketer. Projections expect app marketing expenditures to increase by 80 percent within 2015 to $3 billion, led by Facebook.
As developers are given a location for them to showcase the apps they create, these developers are likewise given an incentive to create programs that are specifically for the online retailer. In turn, these programs will provide more appeal to the services and devices of Amazon for shoppers, said Martin Utreras, an analyst for EMarketer.
"It will make the ecosystem more rich by having more apps," Utreras added.
Users of smartphones are found to be spending even more time using mobile apps. On average, users were found to have spent 153 minutes daily on their mobile apps last month, which is a 20 percent increase compared with the data from April of last month, according to a report by Cowen & Co.
While the success of Amazon's new advertising platform for developers remains to be seen, it is certainly a step in the right direction for the online retailer to expand its share in the mobile advertising market.
Photo: Jurgen Appelo | Flickr
