Geniee and SoftBank Group Tie Up in Advertising Business

October 14, 2014

Geniee, Inc.SoftBank Mobile Corp.SoftBank Corp.

Geniee, Inc. (“Geniee”) and SoftBank Mobile Corp. (“SoftBank Mobile”) today announced they have concluded a contract for a business tie up. Under the agreement, SoftBank Mobile will commence an SSP^*1 business starting November 2014 in collaboration with Geniee to strengthen the SoftBank Group's Internet advertising business. Also in line with the contract, SoftBank Corp. will purchase 32.9% of Geniee's outstanding shares.^*2

Since its foundation in 2010, Geniee has utilized ad technology to become one of Japan's largest SSP operators. Geniee also created the “RTB^*3 Market” as a new market in Japan through its promotion of programmatic buying^*4, a system that maximizes revenues for Internet media publishers.

With this alliance, Geniee will provide SSP to SoftBank Mobile, and SoftBank Mobile will in turn utilize this SSP to maximize Internet advertising revenues within the SoftBank Group. As a result, advertisers will be able to bid for ad slots using RTB on the various digital advertising mediums of SoftBank Mobile and other SoftBank Group companies. More than ever before, advertisers will be able to deliver real-time and efficient Internet advertising that matches user demographics.

Through this tie up, Geniee and the SoftBank Group will strive to lead Japan's Internet advertising industry and further expand their businesses.

*1SSP: abbreviation for Supply Side Platforms, advertising platforms that maximize revenues for media publishers.
*2This investment will be made through SB Pan Pacific Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Corp.
*3RTB: abbreviation for Real-time Bidding, a system where ad slot buying is conducted online. For every advertising impression generated, ad slot bidding takes place based on user demographics and posted sites to decide on ad delivery.
*4A system that enables automatic bidding for ad slots based on user demographics, advertisers' placement conditions and other data.

About Geniee, Inc.

Company name	Geniee, Inc.
Established	April 14, 2010
Representative	Tomoaki Kudo, President & CEO
Headquarters	Kurosaki Building 3F, 4-1-4 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Business	Development and provision of “Geniee SSP”, a platform to maximize Internet media advertising revenue Provision of marketing support services to advertisers and advertising agencies
URL	http://en.geniee.co.jp/

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