Facebook is winding down their video ad tech business, LiveRail, which was acquired in 2014.
LiveRail began powering ad serving for all in-app ads on the Facebook Audience Network in 2015, including native video and display ads, as well as supporting desktop advertising. But Facebook had announced earlier this year that they were closing down LiveRail’s ad-serving capabilities so that they could focus on private marketplaces and ad mediation for native and video.
It appears that, according to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook Audience Network will be replacing LiveRail.
“We are discontinuing the LiveRail Private Exchange to focus on finding better ways for publishers to sell their ad space directly to advertisers, as well as expanding our video ad offering via Audience Network,” said a Facebook spokeswoman. “This is what many of our publishing partners told us they wanted, and we believe this will make video ads more relevant to the people who watch them.”
It was announced last week that Audience Network will now expand to enable targeting of non-Facebook users on other mobile apps and websites that use Custom Audinces, lookalike audiences, as well as other targeting.