The success of Apple’s iAd platform is hard to gauge. Apple has said little beyond being “very happy” with its foray into mobile advertising and hasn’t offered much in the way of concrete numbers, but it’s clearly still looking to build its business. On Wednesday, the company said it would be expanding into Japan with the help of advertising agency The Dentsu Group.
iAd production and sales in Japan will be handled by Dentsu’s subsidiary cyber communications (cci). Developers continue to receive the same 60 percent that Apple touted when it introduced iAd back in April and, as in the U.S., ads will be hosted, delivered, and targeted by Apple.
The addition of a second country for iAds may help assuage some developers who have complained about the paltry return on investment that iAd offers, as well as increasing competition with Google’s AdMob mobile advertising service, which is currently available more broadly.