Q3 Oa Market Report Final

2008 ONLINE ADVERTISING MARKET REPORT Q 3 : A d N e t w o r k L a n d s c a p e , Tr e n d s & O u t l o o k

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Foreword State of the Market and Key Takeaways Impact of Market Downturn = Strong Opportunity for Online Advertising Vertical Profile: News & Reference Vertical Profile: Social Networks and Young Adult Thoughts for the Future Footnote Index

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Table of Contents 1 2 5 9 10 13 16

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Over the past weeks we’ve received a number of inquiries regarding the evolving market situation, perceived slowing of Internet advertising, and what it all means for the advertising industry and subsequently, the Rubicon Project.  While we continue to pay very close attention to what’s happening in the market, we’re on a decided growth curve. In fact, as of the end of October, we’ve grown 40% on traffic and revenue basis in last 3 weeks alone. Report after report shows that, despite advertisers cutting traditional media budgets and the rate of growth slowing, the total dollars spent on Internet advertising will continue to increase.  As brands look for ways to tighten the belt, they’re shifting hundreds of millions (potentially billions) of dollars away from hard-to-measure traditional media to online advertising. It’s a necessary move – they’re following the eyeballs. Ten years ago only 5% of consumer time was spent online, today consumers are spending 33% of time online. Advertisers can’t afford to ignore this medium altogether like they did after the dot-com bubble.

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Foreword

Another major change in the industry today is that online advertising is now global and diversified and less subject to the whims of any one country’s economy.  Up to 40% of U.S. sites’ web traffic is made up of visitors from other countries, and more than half of global online spend comes from countries other than the U.S. It is unlikely that most publishers will set up local sales forces all over the world, so ad networks that are focusing on international traffic and/or are based outside the U.S. have become critical channels through which to reach these advertisers. This creates an enormous monetization opportunity, if the right technology and relationships are in place. In order for the online advertising market to grow from its current $65 billion market to the projected $106 billion in 20111, however, there is a need for better technology to make buying and selling more efficient. The last downturn created massive opportunities for companies like Google and Overture (acquired by Yahoo! for $1.6 billion), which delivered unparalleled efficiency to the market. So, while we recognize the seriousness of the current market climate, we also identify this as an enormous opportunity to inject a more efficient buying and selling model to push the industry forward. There’s no doubt this is a tough time for many businesses in our sector and across the board. Overall, however, we’re confident that online advertising will continue to represent a significant and growing portion of marketing spend, driving continued demand for ad networks and platforms like the Rubicon Project, which builds revenue, and offers tremendous time and resource efficiencies for website publishers. Frank Addante CEO & Founder

1

Source IDC, June 2008 Page 1

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What was the state of the ad network marketplace in the third quarter of 2008? At the start, the outlook seemed healthy, particularly in terms of the cash influx. In July, New York-based ContextWeb, parent company of the ADSDAQ display ad exchange, picked up $26 million in a fourth round of funding. Turn, a San Mateo, Calif.-based network that offers a toss-up of ad types and CPM-, CPC- and CPA-based buys, raised $15 million in funding in August. But then in September, a number of U.S. financial institutions crumbled in rapid succession, including commercial banks like Washington Mutual and investment firms like Lehman Brothers. Thus, the end of the quarter was much leaner in terms of investments of all kinds, and ad networks were not immune to the cash and credit crunch. Still, VC firms and other investors pumped $241 million into ad networks over the course of Q3, according to Petsky Prunier.2 A majority (40 percent) of those dollars flowed to vertical networks or exchanges, leading the investment bank to conclude, “the proliferation of vertical networks is a trend that can be expected to continue.” While the number of ad network-related transactions increased from Q2 to Q3, the overall dollar amount dropped sharply – from around $400 million in Q2, to $241 million in Q3. That drop was more pronounced year-over-year, as networks snagged over $800 million in investments in Q3 of 2007.

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State of the Market and Key Takeaways

With the global economy facing stronger headwinds, there was much speculation about how online advertising and the ad industry as a whole would weather the storm. For example, GM, which had pledged to spend $1.5 billion more on digital media advertising in the coming year, reversed course and said it would “pull back slightly in all media types.”3 Media and tech expert Matthew Ingram asked whether online advertising was “heading off a cliff” in a piece for Seeking Alpha,4 and financial pundits were even questioning whether Google, with its seemingly rock-solid grip on the search marketplace, would meet Wall Street’s Q3 earnings expectations. (It did, and trumped a number of them, actually.5) Online advertising execs maintained that the interactive space would withstand the greater economic pressures, as advertisers would shift more of their dwindling budgets online. After all, products and services still need to be promoted, and the Web offers distinct advantages in terms of proving return on ad spend (ROAS).

2 3 4 5

Source: Petsky Prunier, September 2008 Source: bNet.com, September 2008 Source: Seeking Alpha, October 2008 Source: Financial Times, October 2008 Page 2

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As Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer notes in his most recent article on this topic, “the Internet is inherently more measurable and accountable than are traditional channels.” He also cites a June McKinsey & Co. survey of 340 senior marketing executives worldwide, 55% of whom said they’re cutting expenditures on traditional media, precisely in order to increase funding for online efforts.7 But the outlook is a bit darker by some forecasts. Nielsen, for example, found that display ad spending in the first half of 2008 had dropped by 6 percent year-overyear. That was countered by a TNS report released a week later, which said that display spending had actually increased by 8 percent. While analysts said that the 14-point difference could be attributed to factors like Nielsen including only CPM-based stats (completely ignoring performance-based buys like CPC and CPA), others questioned the accuracy of both companies’ measurement tactics.8

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“Last time the Internet got battered by the real world it fell down. Back then, no one sought refuge online,” said Jarvis Coffin, CEO of performance-based network Burst Media. “Today it is television and newspapers that are feeling the pain as buyers and seller[s] look to the Internet as high ground … While I don’t believe the Internet will emerge unscathed from the rising tide of uncertainty, it will emerge more confident and, ultimately, dominant.”6

A dig through the Rubicon Project’s own data shows some revealing trends, however. First and foremost – the sky is not falling. While there are cases of average CPMs trending downward in the third quarter, particularly in verticals like Young Adults and Music, we also saw CPMs trending upward, or at worst maintaining their second quarter pricing, in most of the twenty verticals we track. Two sectors worth noting for their particular CPM growth: News & Reference (which has been quite beleaguered offline) and Technology. Second, network performance in Q3 also varied by type. Behavioral networks were seemingly affected by the negative publicity surrounding data collection practices and consumer privacy, as average CPMs were down from the previous quarter, while some of the larger, all-purpose networks saw marked pricing lifts. For this report, the Rubicon Project analyzed almost 28 billion impressions delivered over the course of Q3 (up nearly 100 percent from Q2) to 240 million unique Internet users, across nearly 270 networks, including Revenue Science, Ad.com and 24/7.

6 7 8

Source: Burst Media Blog, July 2008 eMarketer, October 2008 Source: Mediapost, September 2008

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1. Impact of Market Downturn = Strong Opportunity for Online Advertising Major media agencies and third-party research firms revised both global and U.S. ad spending forecasts across all media downward as a result of the economy – and most of the negative stats came in advance of September’s financial meltdown. But the same companies also forecast overall gains in online advertising dollars, often directly at the expense of traditional mediums. While we expect cutbacks across the board, the shift to online bodes well for ad networks with strong technology, data-targeting and/or niche vertical focus, as those specialized nets best enable advertisers to buy (and publishers to sell) their ads more effectively. 2. News & Reference Sites Saw 36% Gain

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Some key takeaways:

Newspapers are struggling with sales and circulation numbers offline, but the ad representation, sales and content distribution deals they’ve brokered with ad networks and other Web-based properties have started to net positive results. Though some of the growth was (and will be) tempered by the besieged economy, the shift to online sales channels is clearly having a positive impact on the News & Reference vertical, where CPMs rose 36% in Q3. 3. Young Adult and Social Networking Sites – Supply Outpacing Demand On the other hand, Young Adult and Social Networking sites (which tend to have similar audiences and advertisers) didn’t fare as well from a CPM perspective in Q3. While page views, unique visits and time spent stats remained high, CPMs tracked downward. This makes sense: as supply is growing much faster than demand, CPMs will naturally decrease because of this excess inventory. With more than 150 million consumers spending time on social networking sites, advertisers continue to spend to reach this audience, though at lower rates. As these social networks add audience micro-targeting and tracking capabilities technologies to raise rates, however, they will essentially turn into behavioral networks, adding yet another twist to the ever-confusing publisher/network dynamic in the space.

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Ad Spend Forecasts Come Down, Yet Online Advertising Dollars Continue to Grow The U.S. economy had been battered by the subprime mortgage mess and housing sales slump since the start of 2008, but by Q3, the ad industry began to feel the ill effects more deeply. A number of media planning and buying agencies revised their U.S. and global spending forecasts downward, though the stats highlighted a distinct opportunity for the Web to steal dollars from traditional mediums. Carat, for example, predicted that U.S. ad spend would only grow by about 2 percent in 2008, down from the 4 percent it had forecast in March. But the media giant also pegged online spending, in particular, to grow slightly.9 According to Jerry Buhlmann, CEO of Aegis Media (Carat’s holding company) “[the] Internet is set to overtake radio this year to become the world’s third most popular medium, behind TV and print.”

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Impact of Market Downturn = Strong Opportunity for Online Advertising

Zenith Optimedia (ZO) slightly dropped its overall ad spend forecast at the end of June, predicting that North American advertisers would spend 3.5 percent more in 2008 than they did the previous year. That was down from the 3.7 percent growth ZO had forecast in March, and the more than 4 percent growth it had forecast at the end of 2007. But the media agency also believes worldwide Internet advertising would still climb nearly 27 percent this year, as advertisers in the U.S. and Western Europe, in particular, would shift more dollars to the Web.10 Meanwhile, third-party research firms also predicted slower growth. In August, eMarketer said that advertisers would spend $1 billion less in 2008 than it had forecast in April. At $24.9 billion, that’s still up more than 17 percent from 2007, growth that senior analyst David Hallerman said would come directly at the expense of traditional mediums. “Even as the potent mix of a misfiring economy and consumers’ changing media habits shave advertising dollars from traditional venues, such as newspapers and television, Internet ad spending will continue to grow rapidly,” he said.11 Wall Street Implodes

9 10 11

Source: Mediapost, August 2008 Source: AdWeek, June 2008 Source: eMarketer, August 2008 Page 5

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Network Trends: Separating the Wheat From the Chaff A look at some of the data collected across the Rubicon Project’s 1300 publisher clients shows that there’s room for optimism. Average CPMs served across thousands of sites and 270 ad networks slipped 11 percent from Q2, but performance varied by network type and channel. Some channels experienced nearly a 40 percent lift in CPMs from Q2, while others dropped by almost 20 percent.

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But the worst was yet to come, as all of the spending predictions came before Wall Street, well … imploded. In late September, Washington Mutual, AIG and Lehman Brothers all went belly up, and the ensuing fracas sent the Dow Jones down by 7 percent (almost 800 points). Americans were glued to the WSJ and MSNBC, worried as their 401(k)’s, children’s college funds and other investments dwindled in a matter of days. Congress scrambled to pass a financial package that would stem the losses, though the $700 billion piece of legislation had many critics. Some advertising execs spoke out in favor of the package, arguing that it was a necessary measure for the health of the country’s economy – and thus the ad industry – though there was skepticism about how long it would take consumer confidence to rebound.12

It is worth noting that CPMs do not tell a full story regarding the health of the online advertising economy. The pace of growth in the supply of Internet advertising inventory is simply faster than the growth in ad dollars spent. As a result, CPMs are dropping in many areas. If every site on the Internet doubled the number of ad units per page, as an example, CPMs would drop by half, though overall revenue would remain constant. Hence CPM is a relevant metric, but not an overall indicator of market health. Total revenue and ad spend are the correct indicators. “Inventory as a whole has increased with a highly contested Presidential race combined with dire economic news,” noted Shayne Mihalka, CEO of Underdog Media. “General inventory has increased, creating a higher level of gross revenue but no substantial increase in CPMs.” CPMs do, however, serve as a reasonable indicator of trends within different content channels. In the Q3, the poorest performing channels across the Rubicon Project’s network of sites were Entertainment, Music and Young Adult. In Entertainment, average CPMs dropped 17 percent from Q2, and Music CPMs

12

Source: AdAge, October 2008 Page 6

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In contrast, our News & Reference, Technology, and TV & Film channels saw the largest gains. Average CPMs in News & Reference exploded – 36 percent higher than Q2. Technology CPMs also took off – up 35 percent from the previous quarter; TV & Film grew 27 percent from Q2.

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slumped by 14 percent. Lastly, CPMs across the Young Adult channel fell 8 percent from the previous quarter.

Q3 2008 – the Rubicon Project

The variations in pricing reflect advertiser perceptions about the value of both the content on a site and the audience it can attract, a perception that – fair or not – often extends to an entire channel. “Some channels have endemic advertisers that are willing to pay higher CPMs,” said JT Batson, the Rubicon Project’s VP of publisher communities. “Take TV & Film. You have a new release coming out every week, so the sites that attract moviegoers are going to consistently get higher CPMs. On the other hand, some of the early Entertainment or Music sites can draw similar, if not larger audiences, but they’re not sites where advertisers have felt the most comfortable in terms of putting their brand. Whether right or wrong, those channels have a lower perceived value.”

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Smaller networks, which we define as those that serve fewer than 20 million impressions per day, also saw some fluctuations. For example, average CPMs on Network D, a smaller all-purpose network, rose nearly 38 percent in Q3. Lead generation-focused Network E saw a 13% overall gain in CPMs, while they fell by almost 23 percent on performance-focused Network F. The net effect across the Rubicon Project’s full network, however, was flat. Pure-play behavioral networks seemed to maintain their place as the top of the heap – their overall CPMs remain among the highest in the industry. CPMs remained relatively flat for one major behavioral player, though they slipped by 2 percent on another.

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There were also variances by ad network type.13 For example, larger networks that offered a mix of targeting types actually saw moderate gains in CPM prices. In Q3, CPMs across Network A, a large, all-purpose player, were up 18 percent from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, CPMs across Network B, a leading, technology-rich contextual ad network, were up 16 percent from Q2; and on Network C, one of the largest horizontal networks, they were up 7 percent.

Q3 2008 – the Rubicon Project

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Networks are not named to protect confidential data. Page 8

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The digital transition has not been kind to newspaper publishers; as their reader base has increasingly flocked to the Web, but they’ve struggled to replace lost offline ad dollars with online revenue. Rather than build out the infrastructure and train their entire sales teams to shill online classified and display inventory, news publishers like Gannett, Tribune and McClatchy inked various site representation and sales deals with ad networks and Web giants. One of the largest such deals was brokered in late 2006, when Yahoo bowed its newspaper consortium which included display and classified ads, HotJobs listings and distribution across its entire network.14 And now it seems like some of those deals are starting to bear fruit. In Q3, the Rubicon Project’s data shows News & Reference publishers across the board were able to garner higher CPMs. Indicative of the increased value that advertisers were putting on their audiences, CPMs for publishers across the channel were up almost 36 percent, though per network performance varied slightly.

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Vertical Profile: News & Reference

On the network side, average CPMs in News & Reference on leading contextual Network B, for example, grew wildly - up 81 percent from Q2. On Network C, one of the largest horizontal networks, CPMs increased 20 percent from the previous quarter, and while they were down almost 30 percent on the all-purpose Network A, their CPMs for this category were still among the highest in all channels. Even on smaller networks, News & Reference CPMs showed prime performance. For example, CPMs on the lead gen-focused Network E were up nearly 300 percent from Q2.

Q3 2008 – the Rubicon Project

14

Source: paidContent, April 2007 Page 9

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News & Reference sites also outperformed most other verticals in terms of CPMs, as only Food & Drink sites garnered higher prices during Q3. “Newspapers have been trusted for hundreds of years, and much of that trust has extended to their websites,” Batson said. “Most advertisers want to have their brands associated with them.” CPMs in other verticals like Family & Home and Dating were consistent with Q2 rates. Social Networking and Young Adult channel CPMs, in contrast, slipped from Q2 to Q3.

Q3 2008 – the Rubicon Project

Vertical Profile: Social Networks and Young Adult Whether it’s LinkedIn for work, Flickr for play, or Facebook for a mix of the two, social networks continue to proliferate – and Americans spend plenty of time updating their profiles, sharing photos and playing with various branded apps. Hitwise found that users spent an average of 30 minutes per month on MySpace in August, and about 20 minutes on Facebook.15 But most social networking

15

Source: VentureBeat, September 2008 Page 10

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Average CPMs in the Social Networking channel fell by 3 percent in Q3; but as with News & Reference, performance varied by network. For example, CPMs dropped by nearly 33 percent on the large horizontal Network C; and fell by 14 percent on all-purpose Network A. And while average CPMs were actually up 11 percent on the giant contextual Network B, actual CPM prices were still dismally low.

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sites (and related Young Adults properties) seem to struggle with monetizing that engagement. From Google’s admission that it was having trouble wringing cash out of its ad deal with News Corp.’s MySpace,16 to Facebook’s fumbled foray into behavioral targeting,17 it has been difficult for social media properties to get advertisers to spend consistently – and make that spending seem worthwhile.

Q3 2008 – the Rubicon Project

Meanwhile, CPMs in the Young Adult channel slipped by 8 percent in Q3. They tumbled by nearly 40 percent on Network C, and by 22 percent on Network B. The trends were also mirrored on smaller networks, with average CPMs in Q3 down by 21 percent on Network F. The only exception was Network E, the lead-generation focused network, which delivered 31% higher CPMs in this category in Q3.

16 17

Source: CNET, January 2008 Source: eConsultancy, August 2008

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Q3 2008 – the Rubicon Project

“Social networking sites face three problems: first, the basic rule of supply and demand. Social networking traffic is abundant, and in most cases undifferentiated from one publisher to the next. This excess supply has driven down CPM prices to a low equilibrium,” noted Raleigh Harbour, the Rubicon Project’s VP of Ad Network Development. “Second, user-generated content (UGC) still ‘spooks’ advertisers. To an advertiser, UGC is an unknown risk exposure that is in constant flux. Real or perceived, this fear factors into pricing. Finally, long user sessions result in lower performance. For example, a typical social networking visitor may spend 40-50 ad impressions deep into a site, verses 5-10 for a typical news or sports site. This lowers the probability that the same user will click (and therefore convert) on an single ad impression, hence reducing the value of that inventory for advertisers.”

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One significant exception to the overall trend in Social Networking appears to be LinkedIn. In building a popular and effective business-centric networking site, the company seems to have structured itself to buck the three trends Harbour refers to above. For LinkedIn, demand for the site’s attractive, niche content and top-tier audience remains high and is likely keeping pace with supply; UGC is tightly monitored and remains business-focused, making it a low content risk for advertisers; and impressions/visit don’t likely run as high given their audiences limited time, and focused reasons for visiting.

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When average CPMs for both Social Networking and Young Adult channels are stacked up against some of the top- and even moderately performing verticals, the differences in pricing become quite clear. “Generally social media does not convert at the same level as, say, news and reference,” noted Shayne Mihalka, CEO of Underdog Media. “The decline in CPMs during Q3, however, is almost certainly due in part to an increase in traffic in this sector.” Again, inventory outpaced supply, driving down CPMs, even as overall revenue grew.

Perhaps this unique position among social networking sites is what drove LinkedIn to become a network itself in Q3, as a means of taking charge of its own highvalue inventory. LinkedIn partnered with New York-based Collective Media to launch its ad network in September. The deal lets LinkedIn bundle its own traffic with targeted inventory from Collective Media’s sites. Steve Patrizi, LinkedIn’s director of advertising sales said that the decision to “go network” was fueled largely by advertiser requests. “The message we hear from advertisers is simple: they want mass reach against specific segments of decision-making professionals, and they want their ads to appear in quality environments,” he said, in an iMedia interview.18

Thoughts for the Future While no one can be sure how the effects of Wall Street’s cave-in will play out over the coming months, it’s clear that online advertising has the potential to thrive in spite of mounting adversity. “Advertisers are going to see the efficiency of online spend and – barring anything crazier than what’s already going on – we should see a large bump in offline dollars coming online over the next year,” said Raj

18

Source: iMedia, September 2008

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The “dot-bomb” of the early part of this millennium was also driven by the venture capital dollars driving the online ad market at that time; the largest online advertising spenders were the same venture-backed companies that tended to go belly-up in the fall, taking the online ad industry down with them. Today, marketers of all stripes are spending online, from the largest consumer packaged goods companies to automakers to entertainment brands. Gone are the days when the bulk of online ad dollars are coming from online properties; today, online marketing is an integral part of any brand’s strategy.

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Chauhan, the Rubicon Project’s VP of business development. Indeed, eMarketer is pegging U.S. online ad spending to grow by more than 14 percent to reach $28.5 billion next year, with continued growth at an even faster pace, until 2012.19 “While the rate of growth may be slowing, total dollars will continue to increase as ad spend continues to shift online from offline,” said Frank Addante, the Rubicon Project’s founder and CEO. “Advertisers might have been able to ignore the Internet ten years ago during the dot-com bubble, because only 5 percent of consumer time was spent online. Today, people are spending about a third of their time online – more than twice the amount they spend watching television.20 An Internet marketing strategy is no longer optional; today advertisers must maintain an online presence.”

But we’re also well aware of the fact that cutbacks will come (some have come already)21 on both the buying and selling side of the table. “In the recession of 2009, marketers will be making cuts almost across the board, and will seek safe harbors and cost-efficient alternatives,” noted media analyst Jack Myers.22 Inevitably, some networks will fail (in recent weeks, some have already closed their doors).23 Those networks that are merely wholesale inventory brokers that lack technological or content differentiation will struggle to survive. Ad networks that offer specialized audience-targeting technology, unique data or tracking capabilities, and/or highly niche vertical focus will continue to deliver value via access to premium inventory and audiences. Publishers will almost certainly lay off lower-performing direct sales staff, and media agencies may also thin their ranks; but that means that ad networks will have access to more inventory, and that with fewer individual buyers at work,

19 20 21 22 23

Source: eMarketer, October 2008 Source: IDC, February 2008 Source: Washington Post, October 2008 Source: JackMyers Media Business Report, October 2008 Source: Wall Street Journal, October 2008

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interactive buys will need to be carried out through far fewer channels. That means ad networks can provide more value than ever, since advertisers will be honed in on making the most efficient buys possible. “We think it will be a good time for ad networks,” Addante said. “In fact, they may even become a threat to the largest publishers they serve today, as they provide the same efficiency and sometimes more effective behavioral targeting for advertisers. We’ll be watching this trend carefully in coming months.”

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1. IDC - Worldwide Spending on Internet Advertising Will Soar Past $106 Billion in 2011, According to IDC http://idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS21304208 2. Petsky Prunier - Deal Notes (Q308) http://petskyprunier.com/index.php?/deal-notes/ 3. bnet - http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/1000223/general-motors-to-cut-mediaspending-drops-super-bowl/ 4. Seeking Alpha - Is Online Advertising Heading Off a Cliff? http://seekingalpha.com/ article/98763-is-online-advertising-heading-off-a-cliff 5. FT.com - Google Climbs on Evidence of Ad Resilience http://www.ft.com/cms/ s/0/655e7234-9be3-11dd-ae76-000077b07658.html 6. Burst Media - In a Troubled Economy, Online Media will thrive http://burstmedia. wordpress.com/2008/07/17/in-a-troubled-economy-online-media-will-thrive/ 7. eMarketer – Online Ad Spending Will Keep Growing http://www.emarketer.com/Article. aspx?id=1006653 8. Mediapost - Ad Trackers: Online Is Up, No It’s Down, No It’s Up http://www.mediapost. com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=91391

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Footnote Index

9. Mediapost - Carat Lowers Overall Ad Outlook, Boosts Online’s http://www.mediapost. com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=89410&Nid=46526&p=451792%3Cbr%20/%3E 10. AdWeek - ZenithOptimedia Cuts Ad Spending Forecast Again http://www.adweek.com/ aw/content_display/news/media/e3i5ec77cd249430213c49beb8f9bba7e82 11. eMarketer - Online Ad Spending Update http://www.emarketer.com/Article. aspx?id=1006477 12. Advertising Age - Execs Offer Their 2 Cents on $700B Bailout Plan http://adage.com/ abstract.php?article_id=131503 13. the Rubicon Project does not cite specific data associated with any given network; we are committed to protecting our partners’ and customers’ data. 14. paidContent - Yahoo-Newspapers: It’s Official: McClatchy Joins; Deal Expands To Display Ads, Search, Content http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-yahoonewspapers-its-official-mcclatchy-joins-deal-expands-to-display-a/ 15. VentureBeat - Hitwise: Facebook and MySpace see usage metrics go up and down, kinda http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/25/hitwise-facebook-and-myspace-see-usagemetrics-go-up-and-down-kinda/

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17. eConsultancy - Beacon lawsuit shows being too “forward-thinking” has risks http:// www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/366173/beacon-lawsuit-shows-being-too-forward-thinking-has-risks.html 18. iMedia - Is LinkedIn’s ad network what advertisers crave? http://www. imediaconnection.com/news/news-is-linkedin-s-ad-network-what-advertiserscrave-_20554.html 19. eMarketer - Is Online Safe from the Meltdown? http://www.emarketer.com/Article. aspx?id=1006626 20. IDC – IDC Finds Online Consumers Spend Almost Twice as Much Time Using the Internet as Watching TV http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS21096308 21. Washington Post - Layoffs Roundup: Layoffs Roundup: Sirius XM; Zillow; SearchMe; Hi5; Seesmic; Lulu; Zivity; SkyRider 22. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/17/ AR2008101702472.html 23. eMarketer - Online Ad Spending Will Keep Growing (Jack Myers quoted) http://www. emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006653

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16. CNET - Google still waiting for social ad payoff http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_39862529-7.html

24. Wall Street Journal - Shakeout Threatens to Thin Out Web-Ad Brokers http://online. wsj.com/article/SB122514803617173825.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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