Mobile ad agency 4th Screen Advertising has announced a partnership with eBuddy, the independent web and mobile Instant Messaging (IM) service favoured by students and young professionals aged 13 24. The deal will see 4th Screen integrate and roll out a range of mobile ad formats within the eBuddy mobile platform over the coming months, including banners, splash screen ads, integrated tenancy links and new rich media ad formats.
eBuddys mobile IM solution enables over 8 million unique monthly mobile users to chat free of charge in one interface across all major IM networks, including AIM, Facebook, Gtalk, ICQ, MSN Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! eBuddy currently offers four mobile IM versions: eBuddy Mobile Messenger (J2ME), eBuddy Lite Messenger (mobile web), and the native applications, eBuddy for iPhone and eBuddy for Android.
According to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the number of social network users on the mobile Internet has grown 179% year-on-year, compared to 10% growth on the PC Internet. Young people are constantly communicating while on the go, and mobile phones play a critical role in their social lives, says eBuddy UK Advertising Director, Lucy Russell. We anticipate excellent results from our partnership with 4th Screen Advertising, especially considering eBuddys year-on-year mobile IM growth rate of 235% and the more than 8 million unique mobile users per month utilizing eBuddys mobile IM service.