Mobile Ad Platform Vungle Offers Publishers Payouts in Bitcoin

Good news for mobile app developers who want more options when getting paid from their advertising revenue: mobile advertising platform Vungle has just announced plans to offer their publishers the option to receive payments in bitcoin.

Vungle is one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing companies in the mobile app monetization space, and after receiving $17m in series B fundraising last month, the tech company is looking to expand its reach.

The move to start offering bitcoin payouts to the publishers of more than 4,000 apps on the Vungle network comes in response to demand from app developers who expressed their desire for more flexibility in receiving payments from their advertising revenues, says Vungle’s VP of Marketing Andrea Sharfin:

“A lot of our independent app developers showed interest in bitcoin payments. These are usually teams of 2-3 people, working on their own out of a garage. These are the people who can especially benefit from the lower transaction fees associated with getting paid in bitcoin.”

More benefits for publishers

Sharfin explains that in addition to the lower transaction fees that come with bitcoin payments (around 1%, as opposed to 3-5% with credit cards), publishers that opt to receive payment in bitcoin will also receive their money much faster.

Bitcoin payments are processed and delivered almost instantaneously, while credit card payments and bank transfers can take days.

Vungle has partnered with Coinbase to provide more flexibility for the roster of app developers in their network, and with mobile platforms becoming increasingly popular with the general population, publishers have started to place their focus on monetizing mobile content.

No stranger to bitcoin

Although Vungle has just started offering payments in bitcoin to their publishers, the platform has been keeping an eye on the digital currency, and Sharfin says the company has even been offering its employees the option to be reimbursed for expense reports with bitcoin “for some time”.

Building on comments from Vungle’s CEO Zain Jaffer that Vungle has a “long view” on bitcoin, Sharfin explained the company’s decision to offer bitcoin payouts as just one aspect of their progressive stance in the technology industry:

“Of course we can’t speak in certain terms, but we would love to be bullish in our long term prospects for bitcoin. For us, working with bitcoin helps us embrace our future in the tech industry as a leading monetization platform for apps.”

The value of feedback

Feedback from a number of their publishers acted as an impetus for Vungle to offer bitcoin as a payment method, and the company will continue to rely on this feedback to offer the most value for app developers on their network, says Sharfin.

When asked if Vungle expects to see a wave of new publishers from the bitcoin community joining their network, Sharfin was optimistic:

“We would love to see new customers joining the network, and we really hope that adding this flexibility for our existing partners helps maximize their profits and ease some financial stress. We will continue to rely on feedback from publishers in response to offering bitcoin payouts.”

Vungle currently works with a number of big names in a variety of industries to provide in-app advertisements for developers like Sega, Zeptolab and Wooga, all of whom now have the ability to get paid in bitcoin.