Outbrain

Last updated

Outbrain Inc.
Company type Public
Nasdaq:  OB
Industry Internet
Founded2006;18 years ago (2006)
FoundersYaron Galai
Ori Lahav [1]
Headquarters
New York City, New York, U.S. [2]
Key people
Yaron Galai, David Kostman, CO-CEO [3]
ProductsContent Discovery Platform
Revenue$992 million (2022) [4]
Number of employees
850
Website www.outbrain.com

Outbrain is a web recommendation [5] platform founded in 2006 by Co-Founder and Co-CEO Yaron Galai and Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager, Ori Lahav. [6] The company is headquartered in New York City. [5]

Contents

In February 2024, Yaron Galai resigned. [7]

The company generates revenue for online publishers by displaying feeds of content and ads, or boxes of links, known as chumboxes, to pages within a website or mobile platform. [5] Advertisers pay Outbrain on a pay-per-click basis and a portion of that revenue is shared with publishers. [8]

The quality of Outbrain's recommendations have been debated. [9] [5] [10]

Products

Outbrain is a native advertising company. It uses targeted advertising to recommend articles, slideshows, blog posts, photos or videos to a reader. Some of the content recommended by Outbrain link to publisher's own content, while others link to other sites.

As of March 2019, Outbrain's promoted articles are found on 108,121 websites. [11] In 2020, Outbrain delivered an average of 10 billion recommendations daily for over 20,000 advertisers. [12] [13]

History

Outbrain first marketed its content discovery platform in 2006.

It was founded by Yaron Galai and Ori Lahav, who were both officers in the Israeli Navy. [14] Galai sold his company Quigo to AOL in 2007 for $363 million. [15] Lahav worked at Shopping.com, acquired by eBay in 2005. [16]

The company is headquartered in New York with global offices in London, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Cologne, Gurugram, Paris, Ljubljana, Munich, Milan, Madrid, Tokyo, São Paulo, Netanya, [17] Singapore, and Sydney. [18]

Outbrain went public in July 2021. The company offered 8 million shares in the IPO, bringing in $160 million. [19] [20]

Mergers and acquisitions

Outbrain has acquired 6 companies—related content recommendation platform, Surphace (February 2011), [21] content curation platform, Scribit (December 2012), [22] and predictive analytics company, Visual Revenue (March 2013). [23] In early 2016, Outbrain acquired technology company Revee. [24] [25] In July 2017, Outbrain acquired Zemanta. [26] In February 2019, Outbrain acquired Ligatus. [27]

In October 2019, Outbrain announced its intention to merge with Taboola under the Taboola brand. [28] In September 2020, Taboola and Outbrain ceased merger discussions. [29]

In August of 2024, Outbrain and Teads annouced plans to merge in "an approximately $1 billion transaction". [30]

Business model

Advertisers typically pay on a pay-per-click basis and publishers generate income from external clicks. [31] [8] Approximately 75% of that revenue is paid to the site or app which presented the Outbrain link. [32] Outbrain shares advertising revenue with publishers who implement their feeds or links on their sites, which are sometimes referred to as chumboxes. [33] [10]

Reception

Outbrain has often been compared with competitor Taboola. [34] [35] One way that Outbrain claimed to distinguish itself from Taboola was that it tried to pre-filter spammy links before displaying them, whereas Taboola had a feature called Taboola Choice, where users can offer feedback on what recommendations they do not like. [36] [37]

Both Outbrain and Taboola have been described by Internet commentators as alternatives to Google AdSense that content publishers could consider for revenue streams. [38] [39]

In November 2012, in response to criticism of it for low-quality links, Outbrain decided to cut off showing such links and stated that doing so would cause it a 25% revenue cut, but that it was important for its long-term reputation with publishers and users. [40] In 2021, Outbrain revamped its algorithm to incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve the quality of its ads. [41] However, the quality of Outbrain's recommendations have been debated. [36] [42] [43]

See also

Related Research Articles

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked.

Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by the broadcasting corporation Sirius XM that is presently based in Oakland, California inside of the United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project", which is a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits such as genres and shared instrumentation. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service that would generate personalized channels based on these traits as well as specific tracks liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier and additionally a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, which is an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quantcast</span> American technology company

Quantcast is an American technology company, founded in 2006, that specializes in AI-driven real-time advertising, audience insights and measurement. It has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leaf Group</span> American online brand company

Leaf Group, formerly Demand Media Inc., is an American content company that operates online brands, including eHow, livestrong.com, and marketplace brands Saatchi Art and Society6. The company provides social media platforms for large company websites and distributes content with social media tools to web outlets. It is commonly known for being a content farm. Demand Media was created in 2006 by a former private equity investor, Shawn Colo, and the former chairman of MySpace, Richard Rosenblatt.

Perion Network Ltd. is a global technology company that provides digital advertising products and services. It is headquartered in Holon, Israel, with offices in Tel Aviv, New York, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Toronto, and Kiev.

HubSpot, Inc. is an American developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. HubSpot was founded by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah in 2006.

InMobi is an Indian multinational technology company, based in Bangalore. Its mobile-first platform allows brands, developers and publishers to engage consumers through contextual mobile advertising. The company was founded in 2007 under the name mKhoj by Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta and Abhay Singhal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Similarweb</span> Provider of website rankings and analytics

Similarweb Ltd. is a global software development and data aggregation company specializing in web analytics, web traffic and digital performance. The company has 12 offices worldwide. Similarweb went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinterest</span> American social media platform

Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pinterest, Inc. was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp, and is headquartered in San Francisco.

Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, video, article or editorial piece of content. In some cases it functions like an advertorial. The word native refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.

Brave Bison is a digital advertising and technology services company. The company provides a range of digital advertising and technology services to brand advertisers, and operates a digital media network of over 650 channels and 158 million followers. The company is headquartered in London with hubs in Manchester, New York, Singapore, Bulgaria, Egypt and South Africa.

ironSource Ltd. is an Israeli software company that focuses on developing technologies for app monetization and distribution, with its core products focused on the app economy.

Flurry is an American mobile analytics, monetization, and advertising company founded in 2005. The company develops and markets a platform for analyzing consumer interactions with mobile applications, packages for marketers to advertise in-apps, as well as a service for applying monetization structures to mobile apps. Flurry analyzes 150 billion app sessions per month. The company's analytics platform tracks application sessions in iOS, Android, HTML5, and JavaME platforms. Flurry has raised a total of $65 million in funding since its founding and in March 2014 announced that it would partner with Research Now to create a panel database on mobile users. Flurry was acquired by Yahoo! on July 21, 2014 for somewhere between $200 and $300 million.

Zeta Global Holdings Corp. is a data-driven marketing technology company which was founded in 2007. Zeta offers companies a suite of multichannel marketing tools focused on creating, maintaining, and monetizing customer relationships.

This page is a timeline of online advertising. Major launches, milestones and other major events are included.

Taboola, Inc. is a publicly traded advertising and technology company headquartered in New York City. It provides "content recommendation" adverts on its partner websites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chumbox</span> Form of online advertising

A chumbox is a form of online advertising that uses a grid of thumbnails and captions to drive traffic to other sites and webpages. This form of advertising is often associated with low quality clickbait links and articles. The term derives from the fishing practice of "chumming", the use of fish meat as a lure for fish.

The Trade Desk, Inc. is an American multinational technology company that specializes in real-time programmatic marketing automation technologies, products, and services, designed to personalize digital content delivery to users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advertising revenue</span> Income from displaying online ads

Advertising revenue is the monetary income that individuals and businesses earn from displaying paid advertisements on their websites, social media channels, or other platforms surrounding their internet-based content. In September 2018, the U.S Internet advertising market was estimated to be worth $111 billion, with market share being held mostly between Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. These companies earn revenue through online advertising but also have initiated pathways for individual users and social media influencers to earn an income. Individuals and businesses can earn advertising revenue through advertising networks such as Google AdSense, YouTube monetization, or Outbrain.

SimpleReach is a content data platform and performance measurement company that provides a platform to measure social action and track social behavior on published content. Their machine learning and AI data help marketers adjust their content to better serve customers. The company was founded in 2010 by CEO Edward Kim and is based in New York. As of March 2019, the company operates as a subsidiary of Nativo, Inc.

References

  1. ↑ "20 Things You Didn't Know About Outbrain". 10 August 2021.
  2. ↑ "Outbrain Offices". Outbrain. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  3. ↑ "David Kostman Joins Outbrain as Co-CEO". 15 November 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  4. ↑ "SEC Filing". investors.outbrain.com. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "IPO-bound digital ad platform Outbrain raises $200 million in funding". Reuters. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  6. ↑ Lee, Allen (10 August 2021). "20 Things You Didn't Know About Outbrain". Money Inc. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "Yaron Galai stepping down as Outbrain CEO after 17 years amid disappointing financial results". ctech. 29 February 2024. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  8. 1 2 Hsu, Tiffany (4 October 2019). "You Will Be Shocked by This Article". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  9. ↑ "Outbrain raises $200 million ahead of its IPO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  10. 1 2 Lopatto, Elizabeth (22 July 2020). "Remember the chumbox providers? This is how they look now". The Verge. Retrieved 17 August 2021. You know that chumbox of weird garbage that appears at the bottom of most news sites, including this one? You know the one! It's labeled "Promoted stories" or "Around the web." It's got headlines like: "1 Weird Trick to Lose Weight," "You Won't Believe What [STAR NAME HERE] Looks Like Today!," and "Throw this vegetable out!" There are two major players in the field — Taboola and Outbrain
  11. ↑ "Outbrain Market Share and Web Usage Statistics". SimilarTech. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  12. ↑ "Outbrain Files $100M IPO, to List on NASDAQ Under 'OB'". StreetInsider.com. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Content marketing platform Outbrain prices IPO below the range at $20". Nasdaq. 23 July 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  14. ↑ "Beyond Israeli Army Unit 8200 - that's not what Startup Nation is all about". 31 May 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  15. ↑ It Took Yaron Galai Four Startups to Build the One He Always Wanted to Build PandoDaily. August 16, 2012.
  16. ↑ Solomon, Shoshanna (16 January 2018). "Running a Startup is a marathon; pace yourself, Outbrain founder says". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  17. ↑ "Offices". Outbrain. Outbrain. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  18. ↑ "Outbrain -Outbrain's Worldwide Offices". Outbrain. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  19. ↑ "Outbrain raises $160M in IPO at $1.25B valuation for news link recommendations". VentureBeat. 23 July 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  20. ↑ Weil, Dan. "Outbrain Edges Higher on Ad Platform's First Day of Trading". TheStreet. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  21. ↑ ""Outbrain Acquires Surphace, Creates Market Leader for Content Discovery". 02 Feb 2011". Marketwire. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  22. ↑ Kafka, Peter (11 December 2012). "Content-Recommender Outbrain Buys Content-Fetcher Scribit". Allthingsd.
  23. ↑ Lynley, Matthew (7 March 2013). "Recommendation Engine Outbrain Acquires Editorial Data Startup Visual Revenue". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  24. ↑ O'Reilly, Lara (3 March 2016). "Outbrain acquires Revee in order to tell publishers how much revenue each individual article is pulling in". Business Insider.
  25. ↑ Reback, Gedalyah (3 March 2016). "Outbrain outfoxes Taboola and buys out adtech startup Revee". geektime.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
  26. ↑ "Outbrain Acquires Native DSP Zemanta". AdExchanger. 25 July 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
  27. ↑ "Web Content-Recommendation Firm Outbrain to Acquire Native-Ad Specialist". Wall Street Journal. 26 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  28. ↑ Graham, Megan (3 October 2019). "A new ad tech merger is the latest sign rivals need to get big quickly to take on Facebook and Google's dominance". CNBC. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  29. ↑ "Taboola and Outbrain call off their $850M merger". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  30. ↑ "Press Release: Category Leaders Outbrain and Teads to Merge, Creating an Independent End-to-End Advertising Platform for the Open Internet | Teads". 1 August 2024. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  31. ↑ "Not so chummy any more: after merger didn't click, what next for Taboola and Outbrain?". The Drum. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  32. ↑ "tm2113258-15_s1a - block - 34.3596108s". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  33. ↑ Cookson, Robert (January 2014). "How Outbrain Hooked Publishers on Content Marketing". Financial Times.
  34. ↑ Jeff John Roberts (28 March 2013). ""Recommended for you": the fight to decide what you read next". GigaOm . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  35. ↑ Stewman, Ryan (3 April 2016). "Outbrain vs. Taboola: What's Different, and When To Use One Over The Other".
  36. 1 2 "How Journalism Promotes The Internet's Shadiest Scams". Priceonomics. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  37. ↑ Lawler, Ryan (4 September 2013). "Taboola Now Lets You Filter Out Content Recommendations That You Don't Want To See" . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  38. ↑ Taub, Alexander (28 March 2013). "How two Israeli companies are leading the pack in the AdSense for content space/". Forbes . Archived from the original on 1 April 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  39. ↑ "17 Best Google AdSense Alternatives to Make Money From Your Blog". The Tecnica. 24 April 2014. Archived from the original on 4 October 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  40. ↑ Jason Del Rey (8 November 2012). "Outbrain Expects 25% Revenue Hit As It Cuts Off Spammy Content Marketers. Move Seeks to Eliminate Deceptive Headlines and Get-Rich-Quick Schemes to Improve Quality". Ad Age . Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  41. ↑ B&T Magazine (17 May 2021). "Outbrain Creates New Tool To Rate Quality Of Advertiser Content". B&T. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  42. ↑ Ingram, Matthew (18 August 2014). "How Taboola and Outbrain are battling a bad reputation… and each other". Forbes. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  43. ↑ "Who are Top Advertisers and Publishers on Outbrain?" . Retrieved 18 June 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.