May 15th, 2018 marked the ten year anniversary of OpenX becoming incorporated in the U.S. This post is part of a series looking back at each of the ten years in the company’s history – Part 8 of 10
The 2014 introduction of header bidding took OpenX to a new level of growth, and in 2015, this trend continued and in many ways even accelerated. As co-founder Jason Fairchild says, it was “the right product, at the right time, with the right sales team.” The success of header bidding led to revenue that grew 40% year-over-year, and helped OpenX surpass $140M in net revenue.
The success of header bidding led to new publishers like The Boston Globe and NY Daily Newssigning partnerships with OpenX, and the company expanding their business with other leading publishers.
Throughout this growth period, OpenX maintained the company’s position as the highest quality programmatic platform in the ecosystem, spending six consecutive months in the top spot on Pixalates’s Global Seller Index.
2015 was also a huge year for the larger mobile advertising ecosystem, with eMarketer reporting that it surpassed desktop spending for the first time. This started to be seen on the OpenX marketplace as well, and mobile began to make up a significant portion of traffic for the first time.
Throughout all the success, however, one thing soon became apparent. OpenX would not be the only header bidding solution in the market for long, and other companies were beginning to offer competing solutions. By the end of the year, the ecosystem began to get increasingly crowded, and it was was apparent that 2016 may be very different than 2015.
The 2014 introduction of header bidding took OpenX to a new level of growth, and in 2015, this trend continued and in many ways even accelerated.
About OpenX
OpenX is an independent omni-channel supply-side platform (SSP) and a global leader in supply-side curation, transparency, and sustainability. Through its 100% cloud-based tech stack, OpenX powers advertising across CTV, app, mobile web, and desktop, enabling publishers to deliver marketers with improved performance and dynamic future-proofed solutions. With a 17-year track record of programmatic innovation, OpenX is a direct and trusted partner of the world’s largest publishers, working with more than 130,000 premium publisher domains and over 100,000 advertisers. As the market leader in sustainability, OpenX was the first adtech company to be certified as CarbonNeutral™ and third-party verified for achieving its SBTi Net-Zero targets. Learn more at www.openx.com.
