Uber has hired a longtime adtech and ad-agency veteran to lead its advertising business, underscoring its burgeoning ambitions to grab a bigger piece of the $240 billion mobile advertising market.
Mark Grether, previously a director within Amazon's advertising division, is now general manager of Uber's advertising division. He moved to the role in June, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Grether joined Amazon when it acquired assets of Sizmek in 2019, an adtech company where he was CEO at the time. He previously worked at ad giant WPP, where he cofounded its programmatic ads business Xaxis.
In a post on LinkedIn announcing his new role on Wednesday, Grether said he joined the ride-hailing company "to develop the next phase of its global advertising strategy" across 32 markets and in its delivery and mobility apps.
An Uber spokesperson confirmed Grether's appointment as senior manager and general manager of ads. Grether didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Uber already has a nascent and growing ads business that the company has said is on track to hit a revenue run rate of $300 million next year. While the company has long shown ads within its delivery apps like Uber Eats and Postmates, it only more-recently began experimenting with putting ads in its core ride-hailing app, Insider first reported last month. Last year, Uber signed a deal with adtech company Adomni to put physical ad displays on top of driver's vehicles.
A recent job ad for a staff software engineer for the Uber ads platform says the company is "just starting to build a world class advertising and marketing platform" for marketers to reach its 100 million-plus active users.
Uber's advertising appointment comes amid a wave of recent high-profile advertising executive hires at delivery services and retailers, including Gopuff, Drizly, and Walmart as businesses look for growing, high-margin avenues to diversify their revenue. Notably, Instacart recently hired longtime Facebook execs Fidji Simo and Carolyn Everson.
Spending on mobile ads grew to $240 billion last year, up 26% on 2019, according to analytics firm App Annie.
