Over the past couple of weeks, US mobile user acquisition and advertising network Tapjoy has been putting out some interesting press releases.

The details contained within have been newsworthy, of course, but it's the language that's particular caught our attention.

Now, with a growing consumer-facing operation alongside its b2b core, Tapjoy is happy to point out it has 70 million monthly active users, almost as if it was a social publisher like Zynga or Glu Mobile.

Indeed, in another, it called itself 'one of the largest international publishers of mobile gaming apps', when talking about the 130 games its $5 million fund is bringing from iOS to Android.

What's in a name?

"We're not saying we're a publisher in that sense," clarifies CMO Peter Dille.

"But we are providing funding and distribution, so effectively we're carrying out that role for developers, even though they keep the IP rights."

More significant, he explains, is Tapjoy's move to "have some skin in the game", especially on the fast-growing Android market.

"We want to establish the Android market for games," he says, adding the company is in a unique position to thrown fuel onto this fire.

As well as increasing its scale, the company also gets to improve its knowledge of the market thanks to all the data it collects in terms of downloads, in-app purchases and other activity in apps using its SDK.

Apple core

Still, in terms of its overall business, the bulk - around two thirds - is generated from iOS activity, whether that be video ads, or other incentivised actions, now available again on the platform via its web-based Personal App Marketplace, which works across iOS and Android.

Launched in late October 2011, Dille says it's early for the company to talk about specific numbers within that part of the business.

Instead, he's keen to point to the scale of Tapjoy's overall activity, which is large enough to attract the big consumer brand advertisers, while new self service tools - including a $0.10 minimum bid per action without a minimum spend - opens up campaigns to both big and small clients.

"We're looking to see a broader range of advertisers," he says.

And while incentivised action remain core - and are especially important on Android - it's also looking to roll out non rewarded actions.

Downloads With Friends

But it's the consumer part of the business that Tapjoy's looking to in terms of driving new value in 2012.

A key element of this is the company's deal with Android social gaming platform Papaya Mobile, announced in November 2011. This encourages developers using Tapjoy's SDK to also integrate Papaya's social SDK, and vice versa.

In this way, the companies hope be able to generate synergies in terms of social recommendations and incentivised actions, creating a powerfully leveraged app discovery system.

"It will be a big trend going forward," Dille says.

"It's the large part of our vision. We think it can change the way people discover apps."