 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(August 2013) |
Say Media (formerly VideoEgg) is a technology and advertising firm. The company provides a publishing platform (Tempest) to professional publishers and sells advertising across that platform and extended network of sites. Say Media has offices in San Francisco, Portland, NY, London, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and Detroit and is privately held.
Say Media was formed when VideoEgg (a video advertising company) bought Six Apart (a technology company that created Moveable Type and TypePad). VideoEgg was founded in early 2005 when Yale University graduates David Lerman, Matthew Sanchez and Kevin Sladek were making video software. At the time, the three were involved in a social venture that was matching non-profit organizations that needed public service announcements with a nationwide network of filmmakers who would make videos with their digital cameras and desktop editing packages. [1] [2]
The three soon encountered a lack of simple, foolproof tools for people to put videos on the web from the diverse range of devices, editors, encoders, and players, people owned. They began to create tools to manage web video.
As their business matured they began to focus on monetization, they found an opportunity in video advertising in online video and online social networking services. In May, 2008 the company officially discontinued video hosting services to focus entirely on its online advertising network. [3]
In June 2008, VideoEgg and one of its partner websites, hi5, were sued in the United States by EMI recording labels and music publishers. The plaintiffs alleged that the services are liable for copyright infringement due to videos uploaded by hi5 users through the VideoEgg application, and sought injunctions against the allegedly infringing activity. [4]
VideoEgg acquired Six Apart in 2010, and renamed itself Say Media. [5] It sold Movable Type and the Six Apart name to Infocom, a Japanese information technology company; Say Media retained TypePad. [6] [7] As a result of this transaction, the headquarters of Six Apart is now Tokyo, Japan. [8]
Say Media acquired the websites Dogster, ReadWriteWeb, POPcast Communications, and Remodelista over the past several years. [9] [10] [11] It also launched xoJane, with editor Jane Pratt, xoVain, its beauty-centric counterpart, and Gardenista, a sister site of Remodelista. In 2013, the company decided to divest these assets to focus on their platform (Tempest) and advertising operations. Say Media subsequently sold Dogster & Catster, ReadWriteWeb, Remodelista and Gardenista, which as of early 2015 all operate independently or under new ownership.
Say Media is a privately owned company. As of 2010, VideoEgg had conducted four rounds of funding, raising over $30 million. Investors include First Round Capital, WPP Group, August Capital, Focus Ventures and Maveron. [12] [13] [14]
The company currently builds, maintains and provides Tempest, a publishing platform, to professional publishers in exchange for managing their unsold inventory. As of October 2016, 50 sites including Maxim, Rachael Ray, Climbing, Bio, and Fashionista were using the platform. Say's in-house design team (located in Portland, Oregon) creates display ad units and the custom overlay using advertiser's creative assets. [15]
In July 2008, VideoEgg announced several new capabilities to their ad network. These include offering advertisers increased ad features and functionalities, such as:
Publishers are able to integrate VideoEgg's AdPlatform. VideoEgg then serves the ads, which are designed to fit in any space and publishers receive payment every time a user engages with one of the VideoEgg ad units on the publisher's site.
The company successfully filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement against an Israeli company (associated with the Komodia library) also calling itself Say Media. That company has since changed names.[ citation needed ]
Movable Type is a weblog publishing system developed by the company Six Apart. It was publicly announced on September 3, 2001; version 1.0 was publicly released on October 8, 2001. The current version is 7.0.
Six Apart Ltd., sometimes abbreviated 6A, is a software company known for creating the Movable Type blogware, TypePad blog hosting service, and Vox. The company also is the former owner of LiveJournal. Six Apart is headquartered in Tokyo. The name is a reference to the six-day age difference between its married co-founders, Ben and Mena Trott.
WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many companies, which includes advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Benjamin Trott is a co-founder of Six Apart, creator of Movable Type and TypePad. In November 2010, he became Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of SAY Media, a new online advertising and software company formed by a merger of ad network VideoEgg with Six Apart.
An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser's demand. The phrase "ad network" by itself is media-neutral in the sense that there can be a "Television Ad Network" or a "Print Ad Network", but is increasingly used to mean "online ad network" as the effect of aggregation of publisher ad space and sale to advertisers is most commonly seen in the online space. The fundamental difference between traditional media ad networks and online ad networks is that online ad networks use a central ad server to deliver advertisements to consumers, which enables targeting, tracking and reporting of impressions in ways not possible with analog media alternatives.
Typepad is a blogging service owned by Endurance International Group, previously owned by SAY Media. Originally launched in October 2003, Typepad is based on Six Apart's Movable Type platform, and shares technology with Movable Type such as templates and APIs, but is marketed to non-technical users and includes additional features like multiple author support, photo albums and mobile blogging.
RhythmOne plc, previously known as Blinkx, and also known as RhythmOne Group, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel.
Vox was an Internet blogging service run by Six Apart. Announced on September 21, 2005 by Six Apart president Mena Trott at the DEMO Fall conference under the codename "Project Comet," the site began private alpha testing in March 2006. In June 2006, the site entered public beta—opening registration to outside users on a limited basis via an invitation system—and transitioned to its official name Vox, moving the site to the domain Vox.com. Vox officially launched on October 26, 2006, with registration opened to the general public.
Spot Runner was an American advertising and technology company. An automated web-based service, Spot Runner allowed businesses to inexpensively create and air personalized ads in their local markets through a self-service package of commercial production, media planning and ad placement without the assistance of media buyers or advertising agencies. The company was founded in 2003.
AKQA is a digital design and communications agency owned by WPP. It was founded in London in 1994 and expanded internationally in 2001 through a merger with agencies based in the United States and Singapore. It operated as an independent agency until 2012, when it was acquired by WPP. Initially the firm focused on technology and digital projects, later broadening its focus on design and innovation to services including product and spatial design. In 2020, WPP announced it was merging Grey Group with AKQA to create the AKQA Group. The resulting agency has around 6,000 employees in 50 countries.
Eric Austin Litman is an American entrepreneur and angel investor, and currently serves as CEO of the robotics health technology company, aescape, inc. Litman co-founded Proxicom, built Viaduct from a one-man shop through a merger with the Wolf Group, and was the founder and CEO of Medialets, a mobile ad serving and advertising analytics company acquired by WPP plc.
Social network advertising, also known as "social media targeting," is a group of terms that are used to describe forms of online advertising and digital marketing that focus on social networking services. One of the significant benefits of this type of advertising is that advertisers can take advantage of the users' demographic information and target their ads appropriately.
Civolution is a provider of technology and services for identifying, managing and monetizing audio and video media content. The company offers a portfolio of proprietary and patented digital watermarking and digital audio and video fingerprinting technology for media protection: forensic tracking of media assets in pre-release, digital cinema, Pay TV and online; media intelligence: audience measurement, broadcast monitoring, internet and radio tracking; media interaction: automatic content recognition and triggering for second screen and connected television.
Realtor.com is a real estate listings website operated by the News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc. and based in Santa Clara, California. It is the second most visited real estate listings website in the United States as of 2021, with over 100 million monthly active users. The site launched as the Realtor Information Network in 1995, serving as a closed network for members of the National Association of Realtors. It relaunched in 1996 as a public website displaying property listings. Since then, Realtor.com claims to be the largest real estate website in the United States, and in 2016 was valued at $2.5 billion by Morgan Stanley.
InMobi is an Indian multinational technology company, based in Bengaluru, India. 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.
24/7 Media, formerly 24/7 Real Media is a technology company headquartered in New York City and 20 offices in 12 countries, specializing in Digital Marketing. It provides for publishers, advertisers and agencies globally. It was formerly listed as "TFSM" on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company was purchased by WPP plc in 2007 for $649 million. David J. Moore is the chairman, founder and CEO. He also served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In December, 2013, 24/7 Media announced it would merge with GroupM subsidiary, Xaxis.
Taboola is a public advertising company headquartered in New York City. The CEO of Taboola is Adam Singolda, who founded the company in 2007. It provides advertisements such as "Around the Web" and "Recommended For You" boxes at the bottom of many online news articles. These sponsored links on publishers' websites send readers to the websites of advertisers and other partners. These online thumbnail grid ads are also known as chumbox ads.
Remodelista is an interior design and lifestyle website operated by Remodelista LLC. It was founded in 2007 by the current editor-in-chief Julie Carlson along with Francesca Connolly, Janet Hall, and Sarah Lonsdale. The company is based in New York City.
Julie Carlson is an American writer and co-founder of interior design and lifestyle website Remodelista and outdoor spaces and garden design website Gardenista operated by holding company Remodelista LLC, owned by Carlson and husband Josh Groves. Carlson is the Editor-in-Chief of Remodelista and author of Remodelista: A Manual for the Considered Home (2013) and Remodelista: The Organized Home: Simple, Stylish Storage Ideas for All Over the House (2017).