Mobile Bot Traffic On Pace To Waste Nearly A Billion Dollars Of Advertising Budgets In 2013

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK – April 25, 2013 – Solve Media (www.SolveMedia.com) issued its latest Bot Traffic Market Advisory update today, revealing an increase in bot traffic during the first quarter of 2013. The company identified that suspicious activity remained above 40% in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013. Further analysis showed that 29% of the suspicious activity in Q1 was the result of bot traffic, up from 25% in Q4.

Mobile bot traffic is also on the rise. Solve Media's authoritative anti-bot security platform revealed that 29% of mobile traffic acted suspiciously in Q1 2013, 14% of which was confirmed as bots.

Not all of the traffic identified as mobile is in fact from a mobile device. Malicious hackers are increasingly writing code to masquerade as mobile users in order to take advantage of the lower security levels imposed on mobile users. Regardless of the true origin of the user, mobile bot traffic is an increasing concern for the advertising community. At the current level of mobile bot traffic, the industry is on pace to waste close to a billion dollars in ad spend in 2013.

"The barrier to entry for fraud and bots in mobile is almost nonexistent," said Justin Somaini, Chief Trust Officer at Box, and the newest member of Solve Media's Security Advisory Council. "The mobile bot levels reported by Solve Media should serve as a wake up call to both publishers and advertisers. Marketers will continue to demand a human audience."

A geographic analysis revealed that Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have the highest levels of suspicious mobile traffic, at 71% and 67% respectively. In the US, suspicious web activity in Q1 reached 44%, and suspicious mobile activity reached 19%.

"With the increase in mobile advertising spending this year, it has become incredibly important for advertisers and agencies to be aware of the inefficiencies associated with serving mobile ads to bots," said Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media. "It is up to publishers to implement anti-bot solutions and up to advertisers to seek out partners that take a real stance against bot traffic."

Solve Media runs advertisers' campaigns on its network, consisting of more than 6,000 publishers, and uses its proprietary TYPE-IN&trade technology to prevent bot traffic, improve user experience, and guarantee human engagement. Solve Media's anti-bot security platform specifically addresses bot traffic affecting publishers, ad agencies and advertisers by authenticating that audiences are, in fact, human. Solve Media is the market leader in the space, and has been monitoring and deterring bot traffic for more than three years.

Bots crowd web and mobile traffic and cause advertisers to pay for impressions and clicks that are not being engaged with by people. Malicious bots undermine the security of the web and cause harm, including stealing publisher content, creating spam assets and phishing.

About Solve Media

Solve Media (www.SolveMedia.com) was founded by veteran entrepreneurs and technologists focused on innovative Internet advertising and security solutions. The company's proprietary online advertising platform, the TYPE-IN&trade, was designed to create highly effective opportunities for brands to engage online. With the platform, Solve Media guarantees brand message delivery, brand lift and return on investment for advertisers. Additionally, the platform creates new revenue opportunities for publishers, and saves time for consumers. Backed by First Round Capital, New Atlantic Ventures, AOL Ventures, Bullpen Capital and prominent angel investors, Solve Media is based in New York City and Philadelphia.