Vserv.mobi recently announced the launch of AppWrapper.org, a platform for Android developers that aims to automate the integration of multiple software development kits (SDKs). The tool is designed to integrate services such as ad monetization, analytics, bug tracking and in-app purchases, allowing app developers
to shorten their development time. We caught up with Binay Tiwari, Director, Global Marketing and Product, Vserv.mobi to understand the model and their plans for the platform.
Tell us a bit about AppWrapper, and specifically how independent mobile app developers can take advantage of it?
Vserv is a mobile advertising exchange, which means that we have worked with developers and publishers to partner with them on their apps and sites. As users come and use these apps and sites there’s an opportunity to show them ads and the developer has a chance to earn from those ads. That’s exactly what Vserv has enabled – monetization of apps and sites using advertising – and on the other side we have partnered with advertisers who want to reach these consumers. Now placing these ads on apps requires an SDK, right? Developers need to take the SDK from that ad network and integrate that into their app and that’s how ads start showing up. Appwrapper started off as a way for Vserv’s advertising SDK to get enabled or the app in one click without any coding by the developer himself. So a developer would be able to choose an app, run our tool from Appwrapper and get another version of the app that now had ads enabled on it at the launch and exit of the application.
Soon we said that this an amazing technology; why not extend it to entire ecosystem and to all our partners across the ecosystem. And that’s why we now enable multiple SDK’s across various categories using the appwrapper. Bugtracking was one of the first services that we put out. Monetization such as our ads, or Google Play in-app purchases is another one, being able to request the user to rate their app in the third service through another partner as well, which we called ‘user engagement’. Already they had the biggest names in the space – in Analytics we have Google Analytics, Flurry and Apsalar, for bug-tracking we have Bugsense and Crittercism, etc.
When choosing which SDKs to include is Vserv’s advertising SDK mandatory or can that be skipped?
Absolutely! It is not mandatory at all that somebody uses Vserv’s advertising SDKs or any of Vserv’s SDK and all. He can go and choose any of the services that are available. There are of course some rules for example if you end up choosing one analytics SDK that conflicts with another, then you’ll have to take that out and have to choose one or the other, but there is nothing from a business policy standpoint that says Vserv needs to be included. There are no limitations on that front whatsoever. And also just coming to the simplicities that might use this. Think of it as simple as using Winzip.
If the advertising SDK is not mandatory, then what’s in it for Vserv?
Great question! Essentially our whole approach with appwrapper in this new, shape and form is to put this out as an independent global platform, where a developer can come use it freely. That’s also why we choose the .org domain. The vision that we have for this tool is to eventually become a marketplace of sorts, where on one side you have the developers who are going to come and try using this platform because it simplified the whole integration process for them as well as helped them find some new services that they might not have already known about; on the other side you have the service providers who are creating these developer services, tools and so on and giving out the SDK’s to developers. When we integrate those into the appwrapper they get two things again, one is discoverability because lot of them are new and niche so as they come this platform developers will be able to discover them, and the second is super simplified onboarding process, right? Over time, we want to simplify many things, based on the partnership sites we develop.
