• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

3

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion

1

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

2

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

3

‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
TechThe Mobile Executive

This tool is helping Airbnb, Pinterest, and Etsy get more people to download their apps

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 28, 2015, 1:48 PM ET
Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

What good is a user referral program or a marketing campaign if its effectiveness can’t be measured?

Like any other business, companies built on mobile apps—such as Airbnb, Pinterest, Etsy, Washio, Wanelo, and Snapdeal—want to know where their customers come from. Often it’s on the recommendation of a friend, who shared with you the link to download the app in Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store. The problem? That process tells the app-maker very little about how you got to that link. The app stores don’t transfer that information to the vendor—obscuring your arrival from, say, Facebook over Google Search. (Ditto sharing a link to specific information within an app, such as a home listing on Airbnb or a pinned Pinterest item.)

Several companies build tools to circumvent this loss of data: Branch Metrics, Tapstream, and a three-year-old company named Yozio, which on Tuesday said it raised $7 million in new funding.

Yozio builds software development kits, or “SDKs,” that are easy to incorporate into mobile applications and makes it so that when a user taps on a link to view an item in an app, Yozio’s servers will remember the action and, using a variety of information to identify the user’s device, will tell the app to show the user that item as soon as the download completes.

Yozio has more than 600 customers, it says, 20 times the number it had when it launched in January.

Yozio lets developers track individual links across Apple iOS, Google Android, and the Web for efforts such as customer referral programs and email marketing campaigns. On Tuesday, the startup added the ability to track links when existing users click or tap on them—a feature that many customers requested, Yozio co-founder and CEO Lei Sun tells Fortune.

“A lot of the people who were clicking were already users. So it looked like they weren’t getting more installs,” Sun says. Yozio’s corporate customers were missing the fact that their existing users were clicking on links—an equally important user behavior they wanted to be able to track.

Though tracking tools from Yozio and its peers aren’t a cure-all, they are growing in importance for developers. The rise of the app economy and in-app commerce has put a premium on such information; the ability to test how various kinds of marketing work can make a world of difference for a startup’s survival. From a transactional standpoint, reducing friction during a purchase process is the ultimate goal of every merchant that fears losing business from potential shoppers who just give up because they couldn’t find the item after downloading and signing into an expensive new shopping app.

Yozio says a big challenge ahead is working in international markets where there are a number of app stores beyond that of Apple and Google. These stores use different technologies, Sun says, and Yozio needs to make sure it can support them, too.

Foundation Capital led Yozio’s latest funding round alongside Illuminate Ventures, Webb Investment Network, and AME Cloud Ventures, among others. Founded in 2012 by Sun and Li Hong, Yozio previously raised $1.6 million in funding.

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily morning newsletter about the business of technology.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

nela
Successdisruption
Exclusive: Stanford and ADP have new payroll data on Gen Z women losing ground to men in the job market—and AI isn’t the main culprit
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
4 minutes ago
L-R: Elon Musk and Ray Dalio.
InnovationRay Dalio
Ray Dalio warned Elon Musk against betting all his money on Mars exploration: The SpaceX CEO said there was ‘no need’ for a backup plan
By Eleanor PringleJuly 22, 2026
23 minutes ago
Current price of Ethereum for July 22, 2026
Personal FinanceEthereum
Current price of Ethereum for July 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 22, 2026
48 minutes ago
Doug Proctor (left) and Nick Perry (right)
Startups & VentureTerm Sheet
Candid Health raises $120 million to take on America’s $280 billion medical billing mess
By Lily Mae LazarusJuly 22, 2026
2 hours ago
Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue (center) on Capitol Hill on September 13, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
OpenAI: Our models accidentally compromised Hugging Face
By Andrew NuscaJuly 22, 2026
3 hours ago
Sam Altman and Jony Ive formed a dream team to reinvent hardware. Now it’s at the center of a battle for OpenAI’s future
Big TechOpenAI
Sam Altman and Jony Ive formed a dream team to reinvent hardware. Now it’s at the center of a battle for OpenAI’s future
By Emily Forlini and Sebastian HerreraJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago

Most Popular

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
Cybersecurity
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
By Jeremy Kahn and Emily ForliniJuly 21, 2026
15 hours ago
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
AI
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
By Eva RoytburgJuly 21, 2026
19 hours ago
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
Success
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
By Emma BurleighJuly 21, 2026
20 hours ago
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
AI
'Dr. Doom' Nouriel Roubini says we're headed for universal basic income or 'some form of socialism' as AI revolutionizes work—He calls that optimistic
By Jason MaJuly 18, 2026
4 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.