Hello, this is Blue from the Adrop team — your mobile & web app business partner.
Today I'd like to introduce Tochy, an engineer at Adrop who's wary of routine and complacency.
Even in the middle of busy Adrop development work, Tochy generously agreed to sit down for this interview. 👨🏻💻
Everyone has an animal they kind of resemble, right? Apparently Tochy's nickname has been "rabbit" ever since he was little.
And the nickname Tochy? Yes — it comes from the Korean word for rabbit. 🐰
Tochy started his career as an Android app developer at Kakao.
He's worked across commerce, social, entertainment, and web development. These days, he's enjoying the challenge of a new field: ad tech.
Before joining Adrop, where were you and what were you working on?
- I studied computer science at POSTECH, which naturally led me onto the developer path. I interned at Wish, the global commerce app, and then joined Kakao as an Android app developer at the end of 2015. Many of you probably use Kakao Map — it's been updated with all kinds of new features over the years, but the review and restaurant features I worked on back then are still actively used today. I spent nearly two and a half years at Kakao.
- After that, I moved to STAGE Labs, an entertainment tech startup, where I did web development with React.
- Aaron (Adrop's CEO) and I were in the same major in college. We'd been talking about work for a long time. He told me he was preparing an "ad tech business." I deeply resonated with the problems in "the advertising market for mobile and web app businesses," and that's how I ended up joining Adrop. 😎
What kind of projects are you working on?
- I'm immersed in building solutions for app publishers on Adrop's engineering team. My main focus is Android SDK development and the backend that delivers the data.
What is the SDK you're developing?
- SDK stands for Software Development Kit — it's a package that helps apps deliver ads and monetize.
- When a publisher installs the SDK into their app, they can pull in ad creatives that match their app.
- Take AdSwap as an example. App publishers exchange ads with each other, right? In that flow, the SDK is what helps the connected campaigns get delivered correctly to each app.
\Since SDK code differs by OS, it's important to implement it properly for each platform — Android and iOS!*
What kind of team is Adrop's engineering team?
- Adrop's engineering team is incredibly fast at execution. We run weekly sprints and embrace all kinds of challenges. Even when something fails, we pivot quickly. None of this would be possible without each person's strong technical chops.
What's the tech stack at Adrop?
- For SDK development, we use Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS. We manage data efficiently with GraphQL, and support multi-platform development through React Native and Flutter.
- For the Adrop service and frontend, we use React. For styling, we leverage Tailwind.
- For Adrop user management, we use AWS Cognito. We also use AppSync, with DynamoDB as the database. For Infrastructure as Code (IaC), we've chosen Terraform to manage the backend.
What's going through Tochy's head these days?
- I want to further improve "ad responsiveness." More concretely, I want to deliver an ad service that feels completely delay-free to users. I'd also love to introduce new ad creative formats. I'm always thinking about features that help app publishers unlock better ad monetization opportunities. 🧐
Wrapping up
- Adrop started in September last year, and it's already been over a year — hard to believe. I think I've learned and grown a lot through the process of studying and applying tech specific to ad tech. I'm sure my teammates would say the same. Adrop is a place where you can experience explosive growth alongside outstanding teammates. Thinking through and solving the many problems in the mobile and web app business market together is genuinely interesting and meaningful. Stay tuned for our B2B SaaS ad platform, launching soon after AdSwap! 🔮
Tochy's recipe
- Comfort snack 🧃: Trevi sparkling water
- Soul food 🍲: Sundae-guk (Korean blood sausage soup)
- Song pick 🎧: NewJeans — "That feeling I had from the very start, still untouched — Adrop!"