Kx technology to power antifraud platform from Machine Advertising

Kx announces that Machine Advertising has selected Kx technology to power its anti-fraud platform. Using Kx, Machine is able to analyze hundreds of billions of data points from multiple sources in real time, to detect and prevent fraudulent app installs, ultimately ensuring app marketers are given full transparency and assurance of the audience they are targeting and reaching.

The mobile app market continues to grow exponentially and is reported to be worth $64bn by 2020, according to AppsFlyer. In response, fraudulent activity in the market, specifically fake app installations has skyrocketed, costing app companies billions. A recent study by Machine on ad campaigns for mobile apps that did not use any fraud detection strategies found that 53% of campaign spend was wasted on fraudulent installs, equating to $33.9bn.

Using Kx technology allows every Machine data point to become immediately accessible, enabling far more efficient collection, storage, and analysis. This technical capability allows Machine’s AI platform to perform far more complex mathematical functions extremely quickly, which, in turn, reduces complexity and speeds up new product development. Kx is optimized to provide actionable intelligence in real time, enabling the Machine Advertising platform to detect and block fraud pre-bid and before the client is affected.

Migrating to kdb+

Under the agreement, Machine has migrated its primary data store to kdb+, the world’s fastest time-series database, to increase scalability and support its growing list of clients and resulting data needs.

Kx technology is already used across various industries by organizations like NASA FDL, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, Deutsche Bank and Thomson Reuters.

Gary Danks, Managing Director & Founder, Machine, commented: “It is great to be working with an expert like Kx, and its parent company First Derivatives, who saw a big opportunity in Machine’s work combating app install fraud – and we’re in great company alongside the other companies working with Kx.”

Robert Pawlowicz, Technical Director, Machine, commented: “Kx technology is much more efficient at storing data, and its indexes are 20x smaller. When you’re handling hundreds of terabytes of data, that means huge reductions in storage space and hosting fees. As digital advertising is a time series business, your database is always going to be a limiting factor. Partnering with Kx to remove this constraint means we will be able to develop and launch new solutions for eradicating fraudulent app installs that would never previously have been possible.”

Brian Conlon, CEO of Kx, said: “Fraud is a major challenge in mobile marketing and Machine is an innovative business dedicated to tackling it. Combining Machine’s domain expertise and solutions with the power of Kx makes it much easier to detect and eliminate fraudulent activity and should be welcomed by the industry.”