Advertising firm WPP Digital has announced today that they have made a $4.4 Million investment in Muzy. Muzy is a new startup mobile photo-based microblogging app and website that currently has 20 million users and is gaining 1 million a month. The app and website allows users to utilize over 50 widgets to arrange photos, games and content a small album, add a note, and post.
The company says they will utilize this new funding to add to their staff and build more tools and widgets for their platform. The app currently uses no form of advertising whatsoever, so some of this support from WPP will no doubt be used to advertise the service and reach out to new users.
The potential for advertising on this service when it picks up steam is also great. Companies can potentially utilize this service’s photo and text sharing options to show more about games, or possibly even fund new widgets for the site in exchange for advertising for the new widget. Muzy has been seeing rapid growth with no advertising, so potential for growth utilizing advertising is incredible.
It’s interesting to see an advertising firm investing in a platform. Is this the beginning of a trend Will other ad firms see value in acquiring and/or developing mobile tools that can be useful ad vehicles? Mobile advertising is still in its very early stages with no clear winners yet, so the territory is ripe for innovation. WPP has apparently decided to get directly involved rather than waiting for something to emerge. It will be fascinating to watch the strategy evolve.
Source: TechCrunch