Quigo, a new competitor in online ads?

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on February 26, 2007 at 11:34 AM

As newspapers already competed with Google and Yahoo in the online ad business – then partnered with these to get a share of profits – a new rival has appeared on the market. Quigo, though still a small adversary, is rapidly conquering shares.

In the last year and a half, Quigo has signed on some large names such as ESPN.com and FoxNews.com. Although it still has less than 10% of the contextual ad business, its growing success has convinced Google to reform its way of selling sponsored link ads.

According to The New York Times, Quigo has the advantage of offering “transparency and control in what can often be an opaque business,” by giving “advertisers not only the list of specific sites where their ads have appeared but also the opportunity to buy only on specific Web sites or particular pages on those sites.”

(Google and Yahoo don’t tell their advertisers where their ads are placed, on the basis that the rates depend only upon clicks.)

Quigo’s growth has been so spectacular that even Google is considering how to change its AdSense program, and others, based on the Quigo model.

Online contextual ads generated about $2 billion in revenue last year.

Source: New York Times