Cheetah Mobile, perhaps the least respected large-scale developer of mobile apps, is partnering with the truly world-class computer science and engineering programs at Carnegie Mellon University to show them how the pros shove ads into everything. Yep, this is not a drill, Cheetah Mobile is in fact teaching a course in mobile advertising at CMU's Silicon Valley campus to students paying over $40,000 per year in tuition to get graduate degrees in software development and related fields.
In the press announcement, Cheetah Mobile describes itself as "the leading developer of mission-critical mobile utility and security applications," which stretches the definition of more of those words than it would be worth listing. Following up on a previous course offering—yes, this is not the first time—Cheetah Mobile will lead a new course of their design on Mobile Advertising. Working with CMU on a contract basis is Cheetah's Business Director, Kevin Wei, who will lead the course.
The focus will be on implementing ads in apps and then evaluating their performance, culminating in an analysis judged by Cheetah Mobile and other invited guests.
While the PR aspect of the partnership for Carnegie Mellon is really pretty dubious, we might have to consider that Cheetah Mobile's executives may indeed be some of the foremost experts on ad-based revenue generation. After all, it is a shockingly valuable company in spite of an app portfolio that adds little if any value to the world of mobile software.
Let's hope, for all of our sake, that the young talent over at Carnegie Mellon can put their own, productive spin on the insight they get from the world's best bloatware developers.
PRESS RELEASE
SAN FRANCISCO, March 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cheetah Mobile Inc. (NYSE: CMCM), the leading developer of mission-critical mobile utility and security applications, today announced its continuing partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to lead a new Mobile Advertising course which will teach students about the mobile advertising industry and monetization strategies.
Cheetah Mobile, with more than 567 million monthly active users, is a leader in the mobile ad industry working closely with Facebook's Audience Network, Twitter's Mopub, and Yahoo's Gemini networks. It brings its years of expertise monetizing high quality, free-to-use mobile apps.
Kevin Wei, Business Director from Cheetah Mobile will serve as an adjunct instructor, teaching the spring course for Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley (CMU- SV) Information Networking Institute, along with guest lecturers including Juggs Ravalia, VP, Platforms, Yandex.
Student will perform quantitative and qualitative evaluations of mobile ads using various SDK platforms for open source applications, with the objective of supporting business and technical decisions through practical interactions to learn how mobile ads and their placements/delivery affect revenue generation.
Students will build an awareness and understanding of existing mobile advertising SDKs, various ad formats and technologies, as well as ad standards from IAB.
"Cheetah Mobile has put years of hard work into first learning and now leading the mobile advertising industry as we've expanded our expertise globally," said Jie Xiao, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Business Development at Cheetah Mobile. "This is a wonderful chance to work with Carnegie Mellon University and be able to give young, entrepreneurial-minded students the knowledge to turn their new ideas into sustainable businesses."
"Our continued partnership with Cheetah Mobile has offered students the incredible opportunity to learn, grow and thrive at the pulse of the ever-evolving mobile applications field," said Dena Haritos Tsamitis, director of the Information Networking Institute (INI). "Introducing this course builds upon the success of the fall practicum project and opens new avenues for students entering the mobile advertising market."
Cheetah Mobile has previously worked with Carnegie Mellon's Information Networking Institute in fall 2015 on a mobile advertising practicum. Four students created brand-new Android apps and developed a native advertising strategy based on Cheetah Mobile's guidance, with the goal of creating both a friendly user-experience and financially sustainable app.
The new Mobile Advertising course begins March 15th and runs through May, including a final project where students will present their analysis with invited judges and guests to evaluate their work. Mobile phones for course work will be provided and sponsored by InFocus and ASUS.
About Cheetah Mobile Inc.
Cheetah Mobile (CMCM) is the world's leading mobile security and utility app developer. Its flagship products include Clean Master, the world's No. 1 cleaning app, and also CM Security, the world's top anti-virus and privacy protection app.
Cheetah Mobile is also one of the top three mobile game developers in the world, with its mobile game Piano Tiles 2 having reached the No. 1 ranking in more than 150 countries globally on both iOS and Android.
Its other mission-critical applications include Battery Doctor, CM Locker, Photo Grid, and more. In June 2015, Cheetah Mobile introduced the Cheetah Ad Platform to the global market.
As of September 30, 2015, Cheetah Mobile had approximately 1.942 billion global installations and 567 million global mobile monthly active users. Five of Cheetah Mobile's products have entered the top 40 in Google Play's global top app charts.
Source: Cheetah Mobile (PRNewswire)