Category RTB

A Smart Pipe Manifesto

Auctions conducted—impression by impression—inside of 125 milliseconds. Real time bidding (RTB) holds the promise of making our digital plumbing smart—solving major challenges around media, audience and data fragmentation. But in practice, despite all the promises, and despite all the actually capabilities, most of the time we still have a dumb pipe. But the market is […]

SSPs are Dead

SSPs Are Dead. Admeld, Pubmatic, Rubicon – All Dead

SSPs are Dead. Admeld. Dead. Pubmatic. Dead. Rubicon. Dead. Niedermeyer. Dead. (anyone?) SSPs (supply side platforms) began to emerge in 2007 to help large publishers “YIELD OPTIMIZE” demand from ad networks—all 400 of them. It was a great pitch: Mr. Big Publisher, you utilize 20-70% of your inventory to make 80% of your revenue from […]

Google, Admeld & The Need for Diabolical Liquidity

Recently an industry peer asked me if I was concerned that Google was diabolical. My concern is just the opposite—that Google’s peers—Microsoft, Yahoo! and others—are not being diabolical enough. We need more diabolical liquidity; otherwise we will have a display advertising monopoly. And that’s only fun for one person at the party. Google has been […]