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Welcome to the first edition of our new newsletter, inphorm, which I think you will find an enjoyable, stimulating and informative read - I can say that with confidence as March alone has already proven to be an action packed month. First, there was the roundtable on privacy and online advertising hosted by Baroness Miller at the House of Commons, which, the organisers insisted, was not about Phorm. |
Visitors to the UK are often struck by the noisy and adversarial exchanges between politicians in Parliament. But they’d have been surprised by the turn of events during the Business and Enterprise Select Committee on March 10. A moment of accord broke out during the deliberations on the struggles of traditional media businesses. And the reason for this consensus? Phorm. The company was mentioned as one way in which publishers can earn new revenues and inject some new competition into the online advertising industry. |
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Internet piracy and broadband for all were the headline grabbing elements of the recently launched Digital Britain proposals. While one media outlet described the report as ‘a tax, a quango and ISP snooping,’ there is much to be positive about in the document by Lord Carter, Minister of Communications. By galvanising the industry, the initiative aims to make the UK one of the most switched-on economies in the world. |
Phorm is one of the founding signatories of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s new set of self-regulatory Good Practice Principles on interest-based advertising. These are intended to shape the evolution of the industry and to provide consumers with privacy and protection. Other key players who have signed up to the code of practice include Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft. The principles, which were unveiled by the IAB on March 4 2009, are based on three core commitments: notice, consent and education. |
Someone once explained cricket by saying ‘when you’re in, you’re out and when you’re out, you’re in’. A similar confusion of ins and outs seems to exist in the debate about how people should be alerted to their participation in targeted advertising systems. Regardless of semantics, we think people should be presented with unavoidable notice so that they can choose whether to be involved and to change their minds about this whenever they wish. In other words, companies should not be bowling the user a googly! |
With the introduction of the iPhone the mobile handset war has entered a new phase, but exactly how many of your current gadgets are going to end up in your pocket? We’ve already combined phone, camera, email and browser but looking at recent news you’re going to be saying goodbye to your laptop, Blu-Ray player, games console and even your TV in the next few years. |
The launch of Google Latitude resulted in the voices of privacy advocates ringing out around the world and a severe case of tinnitus for the search engine’s PR people. The mobile phone based service enables users to allow other people to see their exact location, and vice versa, in real time. ‘Be vigilant against online fraudsters,’ warned the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as it launched its annual Scams Awareness Month in February. The organisation responsible for consumer protection pointed out that 23 per cent of UK internet users fell victim to identify thefts - often called phishing attacks - last year compared to just eight per cent in 2007. |
| The European Commission is looking for a ‘positive con- clusion’ to discussions with the UK government over Phorm’s technology, reports IT publication ZDNet UK. Information society commissioner, Viviane Reding and UK authorities have been in conversation regarding the implementation of EU data protection directives in the light of previous technical trials of the online advertising system. The UK government has previously made clear its view that Phorm’s technology can be operated in a ‘lawful, appropriate and transparent fashion’. |
from an Industry Analyst Q. You claim to be able to ‘democratise’ online ad revenues. What do you mean by that and how is that different to a small website using a service like Google’s AdSense? A. We believe that the OIX (Open Internet Exchange) can help any website - big or small - publish online profitably. That’s in stark contrast to the current situation in which the top 50 US websites earned 90 per cent of advertising revenues last year, according to the IAB. |
Posting a 25 per cent increase in online advertising revenue in the last three months of 2008 must have been very pleasing for the UK specialist interest publisher, Future. Especially as this contributed to an overall revenue growth of one per cent taking the company to a total of £41 million ($58.6 million) in the quarter. Less thrilling was the two per cent fall in circulation and the four per cent slide in print advertising revenues. Global media giant News Corporation will be familiar with this kind of challenge despite recording global quarterly revenues of $7.900 million, down 8.3 per cent on the same quarter in 2007. |
| Within days of the Conser- vative Party announcing that Google’s CEO has joined its economic crisis team, a group of Labour MPs filed an Early Day Motion raising questions about the company’s search advertising market share. |
Consumers that spend the most money online - the kind most attractive to advertisers - are 58 per cent more likely to click on an ad if it’s persona- lised. The ChoiceStream survey also revealed that nearly three quarters (70 per cent) of respondents ‘sometimes’ make purchases influenced by having seen an ad for the item. |
One year on almost to the day and we’re holding our second open Town Hall dialogue and briefing on April 7 2009. This year’s meeting will review the events of the past 12 months and explore Phorm’s important role in the new media, social and economic landscape. |
Phorm Inc.
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