Liftoff Launches in Japan, Appoints Former Criteo Executive to Spearhead Expansion

Liftoff, the leader in performance-driven mobile user acquisition and re-engagement, today announced its expansion into Japan, along with the appointment of Kota Amano as Country Manager. Amano, former Senior Director of Partner Development, APAC at Criteo, will lead the company’s growth in Japan, where Liftoff will establish its third international office. He will be joined by two additional commercial team members in the next several weeks.
 
Liftoff is solidifying its ground presence in Japan to tap into the region’s rapidly growing mobile app economy--currently the third largest in the world after China and the U.S., respectively. The company is strategically entering the market with solutions to grow, expand and capture market share within the country’s booming app ecosystem. To demonstrate their commitment to the market, Liftoff has recently opened a data center in Tokyo and is hiring a team of Sales and Customer Success Managers in order to support and advance their work in the Japanese market. Additionally, the company has kicked off business with several locally-based customers and is in the process of closing deals with local suppliers, further solidifying their efforts in the region.
 
Last year, Liftoff expanded its leadership team with two former Twitter executives to establish offices in London and Singapore--two markets with robust mobile app ecosystems. Phil Gontier came on-board as VP of International to spearhead the firm’s expansion into EMEA and APAC and Marc Hale as Head of APAC based in Singapore.
 
“When we established our initial APAC office in Singapore in October of 2016, we believed we would be opening more offices in the future” said Mark Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Liftoff. “Given the success we’ve seen over the last nine months in the region, we’re incredibly excited to double down with our Japan office, and for Kota to lead our efforts in-region. With mobile ad spend projected to grow 200% by 2021, Japan’s mobile app ecosystem represents a huge opportunity for us as we continue scaling globally.”
 
Amano brings more than 12 years of mobile advertising technology and business growth experience to Liftoff. In his five years at Criteo, a performance martech platform for e-commerce publishers, he headed all business development, strategic sales and partner development efforts across Japan. Prior, he built and maintained key growth and business strategies for InMobi and Yahoo! Japan, where he was also responsible for fostering strategic partnerships with key publishers and networks (SSPs) in the Japanese market.
 
“Throughout my entire career, I have focused extensively on Japan and more broadly, the APAC region,” Amano said. “I’m confident that Japan presents a great opportunity for Liftoff, and I look forward to widening the company’s geographic footprint. As a global team, we’re bringing Liftoff’s innovation to even more great brands--across one of my favorite regions.”
 
Liftoff’s industry-first approach to app marketing is the driver for its rapid success and global expansion. Unlike other players in the space, which focus solely on app installs, Liftoff creates value for its customers by generating registrations, subscriptions, reservations and purchases--and charging only for these deeper funnel events. This successful cost-per-action model means more revenue for publishers, and has led to an impressive client base in the U.S. and internationally.
 
To learn more about Liftoff, please visit http://liftoff.io/, available in Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean.
 
About Liftoff
Liftoff is a performance-based mobile app marketing and retargeting platform which uses post-install user data to run true cost-per-action user acquisition and retention campaigns. Powered by advanced machine learning and lookalike targeting, Liftoff campaigns are optimized to drive actions beyond the install, like booking a hotel, making a reservation, or renewing a subscription. Based in Palo Alto, CA, Liftoff works with the leading app publishers and brands.
 

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