In this weekly segment, ExchangeWire sums up key industry updates on ad tech from around the Asia-Pacific region – and in this edition: Nielsen brings Digital Ad Ratings to China; AppLift buys Singapore mobile DSP; AdNear looks towards Europe expansion; and Dentsu Aegis Network appoints new APAC CEO.

Nielsen brings Digital Ad Ratings to China

The market researcher has announced a new partnership with China's Tencent to offer its online and mobile audience metrics for the first time in the Chinese market.

Similar to the company's TV ratings, Nielsen's Digital Ad Ratings tracks the reach and performance of ad campaigns among online and mobile consumers.

Its collaboration with Tencent would offer advertisers, publishers, and agencies in China a comprehensive view of their campaigns' digital audience across computers, tablets, and smartphones, Nielsen said in a statement. These insights would be gleaned from a combination of "aggregated, anonymous data" from Tencent's user base as well as Nielsen surveys of 46,000 consumers in China.

Nielsen's Greater China president, Yan Xuan, said: "Given the explosive growth of online and mobile usage, and Chinese consumers' changing media habits, we believe the introduction of a robust, independent measurement standard for digital campaigns is essential to unlocking additional digital ad growth in China."

According to the company, Digital Ad Ratings is available in nine markets--including China--and plans are underway to launch the service in six more markets this year.

AppLift buys Singapore mobile DSP

The mobile app marketing company has acquired Singapore-headquartered white label mobile DSP, Bidstalk, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal--which includes a R&D facility in Bangalore, India--would provide AppLift's customers access to Bidstalk's real-time bidding capabilities alongside the former's mobile user acquisition platform, DataLift. Both products have already been integrated, according to AppLift.

The AppLift-Bidstalk executive team

"We strongly believe the largest part of the future of mobile advertising, and especially performance advertising, lies in programmatic," it further noted. "The combination of Bidstalk's RTB capabilities with DataLift's data management and optimisation layer will enable advertisers to take their programmatic buying in-house, while at the same time benefit from AppLift's proprietary technological infrastructure dedicated to delivering mobile performance advertising at scale."

With the acquisition, the company said it would now be able to offer advertisers access to more than 50 programmatic mobile display, video, and native SSPs, exchanges, and other supply sources through its platform.

Founded in 2014 by CEO Vaibhav Gupta and CTO Guna Kakulapati, Bidstalk brings with it 40 RTB engineers and data scientists, pushing AppLift's team of specialists to 200. Its Bangalore research facility would give AppLift its second engineering centre.

The mobile app marketing company in March opened three offices in the Asia-Pacific region: Beijing, China; Tokyo, Japan, and Delhi, India.

AdNear looks towards Europe expansion

The Asia-Pacific mobile data analytics platform has unveiled plans to expand into European markets, appointing Ken Parnham as its general manager for the region.

With profiles of more than 700 million mobile users worldwide, AdNear said in a statement it was targeting to grow its footprint into Europe where marketers would be able to build customized audience profiles to support their marketing plans.

Before his role with the company, Parnham was managing director at TrustE where he advised brands on data and privacy issues.

Founded in 2012, AdNear is headquartered in Singapore and has presence in Australia, Japan, India, and other Southeast Asia markets.

Dentsu Aegis Network appoints new APAC CEO

The digital marketing agency has searched within its network to appoint Rohit Ohri as its new CEO of Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan.

Previously the head of Dentsu India and Asia-Pacific South, Ohri is now responsible for all markets across the region outside of the agency's domestic market. With the appointment, the executive has moved from Delhi to Singapore.

Dentsu's executive officer Hiroaki Charlie Sano said in a statement: "Dentsu is an agency network with a long-standing history and strong footprint in Asia-Pacific. Rohit shares our creative ambition and strong vision for Dentsu. I'm delighted he will be taking on a more central position within the network to help guide the business outside of Japan."