Taboola launches Apple News-like service for Android

Taboola is out today with an Apple News competitor — but for Android devices. The content discovery service is announcing a partnership with Android mobile device maker ZTE, the ninth largest in the world, to create a new web-based news recommendation service. The partnership is exclusive with ZTE in the initial four countries — Russia, Mexico, Germany and Spain — and Taboola says it will be partnering with other mobile carriers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in other countries. From the wake screen of ZTE devices, the user sees a feed of a couple of dozen of linked thumbnails of news stories, available via swiping through screens. The stories come from publishers in Taboola’s regular network, as well as from a new cost-per-click marketplace that will be available for non-network publishers. Last fall, Taboola opened a Data Marketplace for third-party targeting data, which it said was the first of its kind for a content discovery service.