April 4th, 2007
The Battle For Control Of The Media Marketplace
Let’s play connect the dots with a number of recent announcements that together reveal the real battleground for the future of media:
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Doubleclick announces that it is setting up a “a Nasdaq-like exchange for the buying and selling of digital advertisements”
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Google announces that it is extending its AdWords marketplace to TV
- AOL announces that Advertising.com will provide the advertising platform for the new News Corp/NBC Universal online video platform
- A number of top media buying agencies are trying to kill the ANA-supported Ebay Media Marketplace because it “commoditizes buying and selling and moves away from the traditional face-to-face, deal-making process”
See the pattern here? If all Google had done was make a great search engine, there would be no cover stories about world dominance. What Google achieved is unique in the history of media companies — not only did they perfect a new market for advertising, they found a way to control it.
Finally, it has dawned on the rest the media/technology world what the real game is. Isn’t it clear now why Microsoft wants to buy DoubleClick — and why Google may try to head them off at the pass?
The media business is no longer about creating or even distributing content. It’s about controlling the platforms that create a marketplace for content and advertising. What is search but one big marketplace for content? Same with YouTube.
While content and advertising will probably never be reduced to the level of pork bellies, as with securities trading, it’s only a matter of time before all media “transactions” are handled by a handful of platforms.
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‘…it’s only a matter of time before all media “transactions†are handled by a handful of platforms.’
I hope you’re wrong about that. Figuring out mechanisms that could prevent that would be a useful exercise.
God, yes. What a nightmare scenario.
Thailand Blocks YouTube Access For Insult to King The Online Ad Boom Banner Blindness Becoming Worse: Users Getting More Savvy Identifying Ads In Content New Algorithms from UCSD Improve Automated Image Labeling The Battle For Control Of The Media Marketplace To find money in open source, look for IP owners DoubleClick to set up digital-ad exchange
DoubleClick Exchange Now PlannedScott Karp / Publishing 2.0: The Battle For Control Of The Media Marketplace
[...] Update 1: The Battle For Control Of The Media Marketplace. Scott Karp turns his attention, again, to the world of online advertising and outlines what one commenter describes as a “nightmare” — control of online advertising. [...]
I think I see where you are going with this Scott. I have to believe the lessons of web2.0 (ie the re-awakening of what Alan Moore calls the ‘We Species’) combined with the necessity for engagement rather than interruptive advertising, means media brands can retain some value in this process.
A media brand is a platform, but (critically) it is a platform for a community. I’m not sure google can say the same.
Its value is in the community that forms around the brand and which must be free to dominate the brand. I’ve discussed this a little more HERE.
The Battle For Control Of The Media Marketplace Wed Apr 04 17:28:06 UTC 2007 via Publishing 2.0
“Medieindustrin handlar inte längre om att skapa eller ens distribuera innehÃ¥ll. Det handlar om att kontrollera plattformarna som skapar en marknadsplats för innehÃ¥ll och annonsering. Vad är “sök” annat än en stor marknadsplats för innehÃ¥ll” skriver Scott Karp pÃ¥ Publishing 2.0. [IMG 24430701.jpg]• Ny tidning: Friidrottaren. Jag är – precis som i november – kritisk till om Interpress är den bästa säljkanalen för den här sortens tidningar. Det är kanske den enda lösnummerkanalen, men eftersom upplagan sannolikt
[...] The Battle For Control Of The Media Marketplace » Publishing 2.0 “The media business is no longer about creating or even distributing content. It’s about controlling the platforms that create a marketplace for content and advertising. What is search but one big marketplace for content? Same with YouTube”. (tags: media publishing advertising DoubleClick marketing Google Yahoo Microsoft) [...]
Interesting post, but let be more precise / specific on the wording.
I would better say that the media business is about controlling the platforms that create a place for publishing content and provide effective / efficient mechanisms to link advertising to content. The difference is not just semantics. The winning platform have to offer both features, not just one. Youtube, for instance, exploded as the best platform to publish video content, but it didn’t provide until now a convincing mechanism to link advertising to content. Same for Flickr re: photos, or DailyMotion again re: video.
But will ever exist a single winning platform for both publishing and advertising? Or the advertising platform (Google search) will always work as a meta-platform of the publishing platform (web as a whole)?
Interesting post from Scott Karp on the battle for control on the media marketplace