[AI Revolution](58) Ad Tech Industry's 'ChatGPT' Moloco

$2 Billion Valuation Soars
Founded Based on YouTube Monetization Experience... Strong Technical Expertise
Optimal Advertising Solutions for When, Who, and What Audience

Moloco, known as the "ChatGPT of the advertising industry," is rapidly growing by recording profits for 12 consecutive quarters. It is soaring high with a recognized corporate value of $2 billion (approximately 2.65 trillion KRW).

Moloco is a company that provides customized advertising solutions through artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning. It is regarded as a company with outstanding technology in the global AI personalized advertising market. Just as generative AI like ChatGPT learns patterns of existing content such as text and images and produces new content, Moloco’s AI precisely analyzes vast data including the apps users use, usage time, location, and devices, delivering optimal results on when, to whom, and what ads should be shown. Founded in 2013, it operates 10 branches worldwide including its U.S. headquarters, Korea, the U.K., China, and Japan. More than 1,000 advertisers worldwide generate revenue through Moloco.

An Ik-jin, CEO of Moloco [Photo by Moloco]

Ikjin Ahn, CEO of Moloco, is widely known for developing YouTube’s recommendation advertising algorithm. After studying computer engineering at Seoul National University, earning a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and completing doctoral coursework at UC San Diego, he joined Google. He gained confidence from his success in monetizing ads on YouTube and left Google to start Moloco.

Moloco’s growth engine lies in its differentiated technologies such as big data analytics platforms and machine learning. More than half of its 600 employees are technical staff including machine learning experts, data scientists, and software engineers. Many have impressive backgrounds from big tech companies like Google and Amazon.

Recently, AI-based advertising has been recognized as a key profit driver for big tech companies. The most notable part of Amazon’s Q2 earnings this year was advertising revenue, which increased 22% year-over-year to $10.7 billion (approximately 14.18 trillion KRW). Meta’s Q2 earnings were also driven by AI-based digital advertising. Digital ad revenue reached $31.5 billion (approximately 41.74 trillion KRW), a 12% increase year-over-year, accounting for about 98% of total revenue.

Generating revenue through advertising is not something only big tech companies with superior technology can do. Moloco’s main solutions are broadly divided into three categories: ▲Cloud DSP ▲Retail Media Platform ▲Monetization Solutions. The Cloud DSP (Demand Side Platform) uses big data-based machine learning technology to analyze users in real time and deliver ads to the most appropriate users. By adopting the Retail Media Platform, various commerce platform companies such as luxury goods, delivery, and furniture can build their own performance advertising businesses.

Moloco is also focusing on the streaming market, including over-the-top (OTT) online video services. In February this year, it launched monetization solutions for content providers. The OTT industry has traditionally adopted a subscription-based model, but due to intensified global competition and declining profitability, interest in advertising has increased since Netflix introduced an ad-supported plan last year. However, most providers lack the capital or personnel to develop their own technology. Moloco quickly responded by releasing monetization solutions, providing a solution. In fact, India’s largest streaming company has adopted Moloco’s solution.

In June, Moloco was valued at $2 billion. Fidelity Management and Research Company in the U.S. and Singapore’s global investment firm EDBI participated as shareholders through a secondary stock offering. At the time of its Series C funding in 2021, it was valued at $1.5 billion (approximately 1.99 trillion KRW), so this represents a 40% increase. In its early days, there were times when the corporate account was empty before payday and the team waited until dawn for investment funds to arrive, but now it is writing a success story in Silicon Valley. Last year, it surpassed $200 million (approximately 265 billion KRW) in revenue and is accelerating growth while recording profits for 12 consecutive quarters.

Ikjin Ahn, CEO of Moloco, said, "Moloco is continuously growing under the mission of helping businesses of all sizes grow through operational machine learning technology. Currently, we maintain high profitability and cash flow, and Moloco’s healthy financial environment enables investment in new services such as retail media platforms and monetization solutions for streaming services and OTT providers."