Gimbal, Inc.

Gimbal

Type	Private
Founded	Santa Monica, California, United States (2011)
Headquarters	2041 Colorado Ave. Santa Monica, California 90404
Key people	Rob Emrich, CEO
Products	mobile advertising platform; location management platform and analytics; Bluetooth smart beacons
Website	http://www.gimbal.com

Gimbal is a Santa Monica, California -based mobile advertising, location solutions, and data company. The company develops technology that allows its customers to deliver custom content to audiences either via advertising or push notifications.

Gimbal consists of two formerly independent companies: The Mobile Majority and Gimbal, Inc. In December 2016, Gimbal, Inc. was acquired by Santa Monica-based The Mobile Majority,^[1] and in April 2017 the company changed its name to Gimbal.

History

Gimbal was originally part of San Diego-based chip manufacturer Qualcomm, and launched its first products as Qualcomm Retail Solutions.^[2] One of the early customers was the Sacramento Kings basketball team, who used beacon technology to send mobile offers and communications to fans attending games at the team's arena.^[3]

In April 2014, Qualcomm announced that it was spinning off the business unit to outside investors, which included individuals as well as the i-Hatch LBS Fund, a fund created with investments from companies including Zebra Technologies, AEG and SK Planet.^[2][4] Qualcomm reportedly kept a substantial but non-controlling interest. The transaction was completed in May, and Rocco Fabiano was named the company's first CEO.^[5] In October, baseball and football teams were using Gimbal's technology to communicate with fans, including giving messages about shorter concession lines at the stadiums.^[5] Also that month, a pilot advertising program in New York City launched where beacons were installed in phone booths, to reach pedestrians. The program was shut down because the installer, New York based transit advertising company Titan, now Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google, had not received the necessary approvals from the City.^[6]

In June 2015, the company announced firmware to turn any Bluetooth LE device into a beacon.^[7] In July, Jeff Russakow became the company's new CEO, and Rocco Fabiano, who had led the transition of Gimbal out of Qualcomm, assumed the role of Chairman.^[8] By then, Gimbal reportedly had the largest deployment of Bluetooth beacons in the US.^[8] Also in July, the company introduced a low cost, USB-powered Bluetooth beacon to add beacon functionality to devices with USB ports, such as vending machines.^[9] In August, the company announced a partnership with do it outdoors, a mobile media company, to create a fleet of roving proximity ads.^[10] Consumers with the correct app on their phone and within 50 meters of a beacon would receive push notifications.^[10]

In December 2016, Gimbal was acquired by Santa Monica-based The Mobile Majority, reportedly in order to better target consumers with mobile advertising campaigns.^[1] The Mobile Majority then changed its name to Gimbal.

Products

Gimbal products include the following:

• Mobile Advertising Platform - A technology that builds and serves mobile ads across mobile apps and websites
• Location Management Platform - A mobile engagement platform combining location geofences and proximity beacons with software, hardware, analytics tools and a management portal
• Gimbal Beacons - The company markets beacons with its own beacon technology and also supports Apple's iBeacon technology, both which use Bluetooth Smart Bluetooth Low Energy technology. A low cost USB-powered beacon is called the U-Series 5.^[9] The company also licenses its technology firmware for integration into third party Bluetooth-enabled devices.
• Integration services - Gimbal offers integration services with other marketing platforms including Marketo and Adobe Marketing Cloud.

Markets

The company targets four areas with its beacon technology:

• Venues - Stadiums, arenas, concert halls and other venues deploy beacons to create personalized mobile experiences for fans.^[11]
• Retailers - Beacons are used by retailers to engage and educate shoppers, and traffic analytics can offer additional market intelligence.^[12]
• Advertising - Beacons are used to send targeted ads to local shoppers.^[10]
• Solution Providers - Gimbal offers a software development kit SDK for developers who want to add beacons to third party applications.^[13]

Privacy concerns

Gimbal's technology has raised security concerns related to customer privacy. Unlike GPS, which isn't very accurate, and doesn't work indoors or in dense cities, beacons have more precise location sensing capabilities. Analysts have been quoted as saying that wider adoption of the technology requires addressing these concerns.^[5] In interviews, the company described how it was addressing these concerns, by only allowing their beacons to work with Gimbal-enabled apps that consumers download to their smartphones. Unlike some other beacon technology, it was reported that Gimbal's beacons will not connect to a phone that isn't running a specific app. The company also announced that they have developed a rolling encrypted code to ensure only users with the correct privileges can see the beacon's information,^[5] and that their technology is TRUSTe-certified. The company also sits on the board advisory committee for the Washington, DC-based Future of Privacy Forum, an organization with the stated mission to promote responsible data practices.^[7]

References

External links

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