Solve Media, a startup that turns CAPTCHA verification systems into ads, says that it’s growing quickly.
There were more than 1 billion engagements with Solve’s Type-In ads last year, the company says. It will exceed that number in the second quarter of 2013 alone, and it should hit 4 billion for all of 2013. Solve also says that it’s on-track to bring in $13 million to $16 million in revenue for 2013.
The technology takes advantage of all those CAPTCHAs we have to fill out to we’re verify that we’re not robots while using different online services. When a site is running a Type-In ad, instead of just forcing you to enter a random collection of letters and numbers, you’ll see an ad (it can be a display ad or a video) and be asked to type in a brand name or message instead. The publisher gets extra revenue and the advertiser gets the attention of consumers in way that’s supposed to deliver 6.7 times higher brand recall than standard ads. The company also runs a similar ad as a preroll before videos.
“Soon we will release a mobile product that performs as well, from an effectiveness standpoint, as our desktop products,” CEO Ari Jacoby told me via email. “Our main goal this year is to remain number 1 on every campaign that we serve for performance. So far, so good.”
Solve is also announcing that it’s opening an office in London, which it says is the first step in its plans for international expansion.