There are probably more than 300 ad networks up and running and they aren’t differentiated on technology. It’s all about arbitrage; they buy inventory for a low price and sell it for a higher price and add little value in between. I think there will be real shakeup in that business over the next year. In a downturn, it becomes imperative for people to become more efficient, and in an efficient marketplace, I don’t think there is room for these players. I’d guess that dozens and dozens of ad networks won’t make it through the next year.”
– Jeff Lanctot, chief strategy officer for Microsoft’s interactive agency, Razorfish, expects 2009 to be an ugly year for ad networks.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
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Razorfish is one of the commodity ad networks that he refers to.
The only thing that works, albeit dismally, is paid search ads. And that’s Google’s domain 100% right now.
Every other ad network better be scared, cause the money is going on pay for performance … not promises.
And Microsoft’s ad platform is convuluted, chaotic and a mess. With such a small marketshare of search, Microsoft better worry.
Posted by Sam Harrison at October 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm