Sharethrough Announces International Expansion with Acquisition of VAN

-- Acquisition provides instant momentum to Sharethrough Europe

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharethrough, the leading feed monetization software for content publishers, announced today that is has acquired the UK-based content platform, VAN, and will immediately launch operations in Europe with an international headquarters in London. 

Sharethrough's acquisition of VAN, a UK-based brand content distribution company, will enable Sharethrough to immediately onboard VAN's publisher and brand clients, including the UKTV, BBC, Car Throttle and Phillips. VAN will start to transition publishing partners over to Sharethrough For Publishers (SFP) to power in-feed ads across both desktop and mobile. In addition, VAN's brand partners will now be able to plug into the Sharethrough Exchange (STX). 

"Sharethrough's native, in-feed product has allowed CarThrottle to serve ads which our users actually love," said Adnan Ebrahim, CEO of Car Throttle. "We've seen record click-through rates on these units due to the great content ads which are being delivered, and the platform has become one of our fastest-growing revenue streams."

European publishing partners will join hundreds of the top media companies that monetize their sites with SFP, including Time Inc., Gannett, Men's Health and Warner Bros Digital Media Sales.

"I am excited at the opportunity to offer Sharethrough's industry-leading software to European publishers and brands.  Like VAN, Sharethrough has a passion for quality content and similar company values - making the two companies a perfect match," said Christopher Quigley, Managing Director of Sharethrough Europe.

Sharethrough's European launch comes at a time when advertisers and publishers are being challenged by a shift towards mobile media consumption, with UK-based OFCOM reporting that mobile audience growth in the last year was 7x times quicker than desktop growth.  The Guardian also recently released figures showing that 48% of page views were non-desktop during weekdays, and 60% on weekends.

"Mobile is the future of digital media & increasingly digital media is being consumed as a feed," said Alan King, Managing Partner at UM. "Banner ads don't translate well to this paradigm so Sharethrough's entry into the UK market is perfectly timed."

According to research based off of Pew's State of the News Media, 21 of the top 21 global news sites have redesigned their mobile sites to organize content into a single feed, allowing users to easily scroll through and read articles on their smartphones and tablets. This shift has made in-feed monetization the top priority for the majority of content publishers.  In the UK specifically, 80% of the top 20 news sites are feed-based and optimized for mobile traffic.

"Sharethrough's enabling software is primed to make the most of this shift in mobile design and user behavior, providing technology to publishers to help monetize their feeds across platforms with branded content, whether it's a brand's Vine, Instagram, YouTube videos or articles," said Dan Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of Sharethrough. 

About Sharethrough
Sharethrough is the leading feed monetization software for content publishers. The company's flagship publisher product, Sharethrough for Publishers (SFP), powers publisher's complete feed monetization strategy, including directly sold campaigns and 3rd party content across their entire suite of properties. The Sharethrough Exchange (STX), the world's largest in-feed ad exchange, is used by brand advertisers to promote all forms of content within the feeds of Sharethrough's publisher partners. Founded in 2008, the company now has over 110 full-time employees and is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, Chicago, and London.  Please visit www.sharethrough.com to learn more.