Comments on: SSPs Are Dead. Admeld, Pubmatic, Rubicon – All Dead

By: Dave Hendricks (@davehendricks)

Dave Hendricks (@davehendricks) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 20:54:52 +0000

You might be on to something Jay…although I would argue that in order for SSPs to truly be exchanges, more of the participants need to be counter parties on both sides of the trade. How many SSP publisher clients are performing audience extension and using other publishers’ inventory to satisfy demand? Until they do that en masse, SSP still seems appropriate.

By: From Good to Great: project #letsfixit - the Rubicon Project

From Good to Great: project #letsfixit - the Rubicon Project — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:09:51 +0000

[...] Leaders from companies across the online advertising spectrum, including top publishers (like NBC, Weather.com, WebMD, Trulia, CareerBuilder…), agencies (like Vivaki, Cadreon), DSPs (like Turn, MediaMath, Appnexus), ad networks (like Ad.com, Undertone, Criteo), data companies (like TargusInfo, Exelate, BlueKai), buyers (like Amazon, Seamless) and ecosystem influencers (there’s no one like Luma Partners, AdExchanger or Comscient), who will discuss what’s required to move the industry from good to great. Even the guy who said SSP’s are dead will be there. [...]

By: dierken

dierken — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:00:48 +0000

I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with you. An exchange is certainly useful – although I would call it a marketplace – but exchanges are too narrow for what publishers actually do when they conduct business. A stock exchange for example allows parties to buy and sell securities but does not by itself guarantee that either party is trustworthy – securities ratings and verification are separate functions provided by other entities. You can sell all day long on an exchange, but the bookkeeping, reconciliation and filing taxes (ugg) for your business isn’t going to be done for you by the exchange – that’s up to you. These and other functions needed in the online advertising world – from the perspective of a publisher conducting business – create a total solution that needs a more descriptive name and I think “platform” fits that pretty well.
Also, you are right that buyers have always been using their own optimization, but optimization which is “buy side maximization” is just “sell side minimization” when you don’t have a publisher champion in your corner. An exchange is just interested in deal flow – but a publisher platform delivers much more.