Facebook buys up LiveRail for around $500m
Facebook has announced it has bought online video advert targeting firm LiveRail, as the social network site seeks to gain from fast growing revenues in online video advertising.
LiveRail, founded in 2007, works to help target more relevant adverts for online videos, and does business with a range of companies, including DailyMotion and Major League Baseball. The San Francisco company, which has 170 employees and offices in London and New York, says it delivers more than 7bn online video adverts a month.
While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, it has been reported to be worth around $500m (£291m), according to TechCrunch.
Brain Boland, vice-president of advertising at Facebook, said “We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month. More relevant ads will be more interesting and engaging to people watching online video, and more effective for marketers, too.”
Facebook took 5.8 per cent of all global digital advertising revenues in 2013, according to e-Marketer.