Cheetah Mobile, the Beijing-based firm best known for its suite of utility apps, today announced it has formed a strategic partnership with Nanigans, a Boston-based startup.
The partnership marks a natural follow up to Cheetah’s investment in Nanigans. In March, Nanigans announced that Cheetah led a US$24 million series B round for the firm, marking one of several forays into advertising for the Chinese company.
Nanigans offers clients access to software-as-a-service designed to help companies optimize their Facebook ad campaigns. The company provides data and analytics and monetizes through a subscription-based model.
According to Cheetah Mobile, the partnership has two sides. First, Cheetah promoting Nanigans’ software to Chinese companies looking to improve their Facebook marketing campaigns. Despite being banned there, Facebook remains a popular outlet for China’s tech firms to reach users abroad. If Facebook’s hiring efforts in greater China are any indication, the company will continue to aggressively court advertisers in the Middle Kingdom. This makes firms like Nanigans well-positioned to ride out a growing demand for Facebook-oriented analytics in the country.
Second, Nanigans will give its current clients access to Cheetah Mobile’s ad inventory – in other words, its advertising real estate in popular apps like Clean Master and CM Security. The former app is Cheetah’s flagship title, with more than 100 million daily active users since last autumn. Cheetah routinely claims that 65 percent of its users hail from outside of China, with many in the US and many in developing countries.
Recently, Cheetah acquired MobPub, a Paris-based ad network, for US$58 million. Before that, it paid US$20 million for Hong Kong Zoom Interactive, a greater China-facing reseller of Facebook and Google ads.
Cheetah Mobile is one of several Chinese companies hoping to break into international markets by offering free utility apps. While these apps aren’t sexy, they reach users easily thanks to generous ad spend and a free-to-download model.
Editing by Terence Lee, top image by tambako
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