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Letters: Google fails to answer monopoly concerns
“Google UK MD Dennis Woodside failed to address the concerns of Microsoft and much of the online industry that it’s creating a monopoly within the online ad industry (NMA 19.04.07).
First, it’s no use his referring to the fact that online has only 11% of the overall ad market. That’s irrelevant as we’re only concerned about a monopoly being created within the online ad market.
Second, he says advertisers can choose to place their campaigns elsewhere. But nearly all large newspaper and magazine publishers use DoubleClick ad serving products, so Google will have complete control, or at the very least will be able to see who’s spending what with who down to campaign level.
Also, DoubleClick has at least 50% of the agency third-party ad serving market. Now that Google has acquired this, it can dominate the online display market within the media agency area as well as search.
The key argument is that there aren’t “plenty of opportunities”, be it in online display media or technology, to avoid Google’s spreading tentacles.â€
Phil Nott, sales director, Adrevenue
NMA magazine | Published: 07.06.07
