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TIVP095: APPLOVIN (APP): THE 30-BAGGER DOWN MORE THAN HALF
W/ KYLE GRIEVE & SHAWN O’MALLEY
TIVP095: APPLOVIN (APP): THE 30-BAGGER DOWN MORE THAN HALF W/ KYLE GRIEVE & SHAWN O’MALLEY
06 September 2026
In today’s episode, Kyle Grieve and Shawn O’Malley break down AppLovin, the mobile advertising platform that went from a failed app recommendation tool to one of the most profitable businesses in ad tech. They walk through how the company makes money on both sides of the ad exchange, why its data advantage has been so hard for competitors to copy, and what caused the market to turn on the stock so violently after a relatively strong quarter. Along the way, they dig into the founder’s track record, the buyback program that made early shareholders rich, and whether the growth story still has room to run.
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IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
- How a failed app became a global advertising platform
- How AppLovin makes money from advertisers and publishers
- Why real-time auctions beat the old waterfall method
- Why AppLovin bought mobile game studios, then sold them
- What actually protects AppLovin from Google and Meta
- How buybacks created enormous value
- Details on the executive comp structure
- What we think triggered the post-earnings collapse
- Where the next leg of growth could come from
- And so much more!
For the full show notes, go to this page.
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