AppLovin—the largest adtech company on the planet that continues to sort of fly under the radar (at least from a PR POV)—announced several big updates today in a post from Marpipe founder Dan Pantelo on LinkedIn and X. While some of these changes were hinted at on AppLovin’s recent Q2 earnings call, Pantelo’s post offers more clarity.
Starting October 1, AppLovin’s ad platform will officially be rebranded as Axon. The holding company will retain the AppLovin name, but Axon will become the identity for its flagship ad platform. This feels like a big deal, no?
Speaking of big deals, on October 1 Axon will also expand beyond the U.S. for the first time, opening to advertisers globally—everywhere except Western Europe, according to Pantelo.
That same day, the platform will reopen to new advertisers after being closed since June. Entry will be referral-only through partners like Marpipe. AppLovin says it paused new customer onboarding to focus on building its self-serve offering. The new referral system is meant to support that effort, though full self-serve isn’t expected to be available by October 1.
Why This Matters:
This is a fairly big deal for those looking to become AppLovin customers, especially given reports of solid to strong performance from trusted names like Haus and others.
On the Q2 earnings call, AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi was clear about how valuable this expansion will be for both the company and the broader ad ecosystem:
“Together, they position us to help any business of any size anywhere in the world grow profitably,” he says. “That is good for our partners, it’s good for economies around the world, and it’s great for job creation. The opportunity is so big that we will be launching the platform under its own brand, Axon. Once Axon is fully open next year, we plan to begin paid marketing to recruit new advertisers, which will drive predictable compounding growth.”
He added:
“Operating at our current scale with an incredibly small amount of advertiser relationships highlights the magnitude of the opportunity ahead… We’re incredibly excited about what’s ahead.”
AppLovin’s stock is up nearly 16% over the past five days and jumped more than 4% today on the news.
Experts React:
See Dan’s full post here (with video) on X:
Our Take:
This is all very cool. But the real update we want is… will AppLovin really buy TikTok? Whatever happened there? We need an update, guys!
