Consolidation in the Online Ad Market: Beware of the Consequences to Privacy, Competition & Content Creation

From AdWeek (excerpt): “Acquisitions last week by Yahoo and Microsoft are part of a wave of consolidations that industry insiders expect will eventually result in a handful of massive ad operating systems. The Internet giants, along with Google and other contenders, see an opportunity to get out in front of an expected flood of brand ad budgets online by offering one-stop systems to manage search, display, video and other campaign formats. These systems would fulfill a role similar to that of TV networks in the early days of broadcast, aggregating audiences that are spread across the Web, mobile and other channels. The Internet giants, along with Google and other contenders, see an opportunity to get out in front of an expected flood of brand ad budgets online by offering one-stop systems to manage search, display, video and other campaign formats…”There’s a bias toward big right now,” said David Kenny, CEO of Digitas, part of Publicis Groupe. “As large companies move to [Internet] brand advertising, video, mobile and social networking, scale matters…”
“We have a vision of a next-generation advertising platform,” said Joe Doran, general manager of Microsoft’s digital advertising solutions unit. “We think of this as one broad platform for all digital media.”
From: “The Big Just Got Bigger in Online Advertising.” Brian Morrissey. Ad Week. May 7, 2007.

Author: jeff

Jeff Chester is executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. A former journalist and filmmaker, Jeff's book on U.S. electronic media politics, entitled "Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy" was published by The New Press in January 2007. He is now working on a new book about interactive advertising and the public interest.

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