Home Platforms Rubicon Project Expands Quickly, House Cleaning Pays Off In Q4

Rubicon Project Expands Quickly, House Cleaning Pays Off In Q4

SHARE:

Rubicon Q4 EarningsRubicon Project’s focus on premium inventory, international expansion and new products looks to be paying off.

CEO Frank Addante said during the company’s Q4 earnings call – in which it posted quarterly revenue of $41.8 million, up 49% YoY – that Rubicon had avoided low-quality sellers that would have boosted short-term revenue while hurting its long-term strategic value.

Rubicon reported FY revenue of $125.3 million, up 49% YoY. Read the release.

“Automation typically begins with low-priced inventory and moves into high-priced inventory,” Addante said. “We chose the harder route because we look at this business as automating all advertising. We made investment into premium earlier.”

Rubicon shed publishers in its pursuit of premium. This initiative meant inventory went down, decreasing from 1.3 trillion in 2013 to 999 million in 2014, “due to quality control initiatives initiated in late 2013, as well as a shift from static to RTB inventory”

Meanwhile, average CPMs for the year rose from 36 cents in 2013 to 67 cents in 2014.

Additionally, Rubicon’s nascent “orders” business accounts for 10% of revenue and includes both guaranteed and non-guaranteed (private marketplaces) orders.

“[Rubicon’s orders product] 49bc merged into iSocket and Shiny ads and we’re seeing promising early adoption, but we’re still early [and] we’re making a market,” said President Greg Raifman.

At least one publisher dipped its toe in the waters: During the fourth quarter, the New York Post executed a home page takeover using the automated guaranteed product, a first for the publisher.

Direct order CPMs are often triple that of RTB CPMs, but product fees are lower. Rubicon expects to see higher managed revenue but lower take rates as adoption of the orders product increases.

Mobile managed revenue grew 300% in 2014. Its sellers include a quarter of the comScore 200 for mobile web. Partnerships with InMobi and Apple’s iAd will bring additional mobile revenue to Rubicon, which described mobile growth as one of “steady adoption,” Raifman said.

Subscribe

AdExchanger Daily

Get our editors’ roundup delivered to your inbox every weekday.

Through InMobi, Rubicon will begin to bring on more app inventory in addition to mobile web inventory.

Rubicon has grown extensively internationally, and overseas now accounts for 40% of its business. Customer wins across the pond included an expansion of its relationship with the BBC, which will now include inventory in more than 200 countries across orders and auctions, and eBay Europe as well as Triad Retail Media, which sells retailers’ inventory.

The company clearly has a lot on its plate, which is often problematic for young businesses, but so far Rubicon hasn’t had many growing pains.

“It’s a good quarter, but it didn’t feel as good as last quarter [when Rubicon grew 60%],” said Ed Bierdeman, managing director of Woodside Capital’s research group. “Criteo had over a 70% growth rate in Q4. When a small company like Rubicon Project tries to expand in too many different directions at once, it can increase the risk, but so far they’ve executed well.”

Must Read

Former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya speaks to AdExchanger Managing Editor Allison Schiff at Programmatic IO NY 2025.

Advertisers Probably Shouldn’t Target Teens At All, Cautions Former FTC Commissioner

Alvaro Bedoya shared his qualms with digital advertising’s more controversial targeting tactics and how kids use gen AI and social media.

Wall Street Turned Against Ad Tech – But May Learn To Love It Again

What can pureplay ad tech companies do to clean up their rep on the Street?

AppsFlyer and Roku’s New SRN Integration Will Shed Light On CTV Campaign Impact

Roku and AppsFlyer announced the launch of a new self-reporting network (SRN) integration between both companies, which will allow mobile app advertisers to more effectively measure their streaming video campaigns

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Comic: Gamechanger (Google lost the DOJ's search antitrust case)

DOJ v. Google: How Judge Brinkema Seems To Be Thinking After Week One

Where the DOJ v. Google ad tech antitrust trial stands after one week’s worth of remedies arguments.

Swish, A Company That's Bringing Programmatic to Product Sampling, Announces Seed Funding

Swish, a startup that partners with retailers to provide product full-size CPG samples to people doing their grocery shopping online, announces $2.3 million in seed funding.

DOJ v. Google: During Opening Arguments, The DOJ And Google Battle Over An AdX Divestiture

Court is back in session. And the fate of  the open internet is in the balance.