Velti plc (NASDAQ: VELT), a leading mobile marketing and advertising technology provider for brands, advertising agencies, mobile operators and media, found more than 39.5 percent of apps within the Apple App Store are now free, an increase of 27.4 percent from a year ago. A similar trend within the Android marketplace was also found — 65.2 percent of apps are now free, an increase of 6.8 percent from a year ago. In an effort to meet demand coming from in-app ad revenue, the Velti Mobclix Exchange launched the first ever Advanced Payments program to ensure developers recoup their investment in the first 15 days and never have to wait up to 90 days to receive payments for ads that appear in these free apps.

As part of Velti’s continued mission to help publishers maximize their app monetization potential and make the revenue process more efficient, Advanced Payments is the first payment process to offer Net 15 and Net 30 payment cycles. Developers choose which payment plan works best for their needs and pay a pre-payment fee to participate in the program. With new financial and reporting features, the Velti Mobclix Exchange dashboard lists all pending payments and invoices.

The explosive growth of free apps has created an increased reliance on ad dollars to generate revenue. Advanced Payments is a response to this increase and the inability of major ad networks to provide inventory to fill all the available ad impressions in new apps. Velti’s Mobclix estimates iAds can fill only 10-20 percent of available ad inventory in apps.

“This program shortens the time that developers can recoup some of their investment and it brings more advertising inventory to the table,” says Krishna Subramanian, CMO of Velti. “Mobile developers are leading the mobile app explosion. They should have more insight into revenue predictability, including when they can expect to be paid.”
The traditional in-app advertising payment process is part of a lengthy 90-day cycle: brands and advertisers first pay agencies, then agencies pay ad networks, ad networks pay ad exchanges and finally ad exchanges pay developers. With Advanced Payments, the Velti Mobclix Exchange consolidates payments by paying developers before receiving payment from demand partners on the exchange, a significant departure from the usual way of handling payment. As a result, developers know when they will be paid and can plan on app monetization as a viable income.

“Having a reliable revenue stream is crucial to any company’s success but for publishers that work independently, receiving payment for work done is especially important. We rely on ad networks to pay us in a timely manner and it’s very frustrating when payment is delayed,” says Michael Sanford, CEO of Flipside5. “Advanced Payments allows us to focus on growing our business as quick as possible. Not only will we get paid quicker, but we’ll also have more control throughout the entire process.”

For more information on Advanced Payments, please visit www.mobclix.com/payments.