In order to ensure their survival, the way mobile game companies and app developers monetize and advertise their platforms must adjust to the ever changing consumer taste.

In a conversation, held at the GamesBeat Summit this year, Vungle CEO Zain Jaffer shared his vision with Charles Hudson, a venture partner at SoftTech VC, “The ad industry needs consolidation. As a developer, why would you want to work with hundreds of vendors?”

Zain Jaffer, just six years ago, envisioned video ads as the next forum where mobile games can advertise and monetize their offerings. Vungle is the result of that vision, and is now collecting data on over a billion events a day.

In Jaffer’s words, “Data is the key asset, and how you use it determines whether you stay in business or don’t… Lots of ad platforms had the same idea, but only a small number have reached the kind of scale that is necessary to deliver insights and value back to the developers.”

With the introduction of companies such as Snapchat and Spotify, “mobile first” companies are beginning to draw audiences away from traditional brands. This presents lucrative opportunity for Vungle, as these companies will be looking to monetize and advertise their products.

Adding to his resume, Hudson was also cofounder and CEO of Bionic Panda Games, and served as VP of business development for Serious Business before its acquisition by Zynga in February 2010. Having run the Social Gaming Summit during the Facebook game trend, Hudson is a familiar figure in the game event community. Through his years in the industry as a venture partner, Hudson has also invested in 145 companies to date.

In earlier years, developers had to spend significant amounts of money in order to garner interest and users. This was generally seen as the only way developers could differentiate themselves from the sheer volume of other developers in the app stores. As noted by Jaffer however, app discovery still hasn’t improved much. Most game and app developers today still rely on Apple or Google features to be their primary source exposure.

“I understand people feel the way they do about ad tech,” Jaffer explains. “I got burned myself in the public markets, and I can understand why people are so skittish about the space. But the ad ecosystem is so different and unique. It’s a shame there hasn’t been a multibillion-dollar market cap company yet.”

In terms of new markets, both ad-tech companies and developers must find a feasible way to gain traction in Asia. As he describes the issues and difficult time he’s having in the Asian Market, Jaffer’s hiring of Zynga China’s engineers after their shutdown shows his persistent vision. Vungle has since continuously invested into the Asian market where the company now derives a third of its revenue.

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