Since one of my startups was advertising network, disrupting advertising network thing has been in my mind for a long time.
Google and Facebook dominate 60% of entire online advertising. This is not healthy. But Google and Facebook are not just smart, they are too strong to disrupt.
So this is just a thought experiment to disrupt ad network.
Good Reason and Strategy
Since Google and Facebook are not just strong but doing pretty good job, trying to build another, better network will not work. Fist of all we need good reason. If we don’t have any good reason, even trying does not make sense.
We have 2 Good reasons.
- Google and Facebook dominate online advertising
- Lack of transparency
Advertising is blood vessels in business like finance. Just 1 or 2 big company controlling advertising is not healthy. And if you are publisher, you knew it. There are no transparency. We have no idea why we got paid $101 last month and $122 this month.
So basic strategy should be democratizing ad network.
Components
How we can democratize Ad network. Let’s think component by component.
First of all, Ad network needs marketplace like platform which connect publishers and advertisers. Publishers show ads/banners on their websites or apps. Then network track performance (maybe impressions and clicks) and handle payments.
- Database
- Serving ads
- Creatives including banner
- Marketplace
- Payment
- Fraud detection
Key thing is current ad network is handling everything by themselves. What if we have absolute transparency and modularity which let multiple companies and even individuals to provide part of services.
Like a few companies provide only server maintenance and transaction maintenance. Other companies only provide web site to connect publishes and advertisers. Others provide only creatives like high quality promotional videos and other companies provide only payments.
Potentially we can do this with blockchain technology.
Theoretically we can have single shared ledgers/logs for ad network. If we can access more data, we can provide better serving algorithm and fraud detection algorithm.
Problem is making things transparent is not a most important thing. Who is using network and who will see which ads is much more important.
And I know even developing one component is not easy. And since there are no companies which provide only part of services of ad network right now, the idea is kind of pie in the sky.
Conclusion
By the way I watched the f8 conference 2017 and I think what Facebook is trying to do is absolutely fabulous.
Blockchain definitely improve transparency and having shared database can improve serving and fraud prevention with AI. But which does not necessarily mean open ad network can compete Google and Facebook.
So far big tech companies leave not a point unguarded. But if someone make a dent by democratizing it, it will be thrilling.
I’m even prototyping it with Fabric-composer which use Hyperledger fabric as backend. Hyperledger fabric is one of base application for blockchain. Here’s models. This is just a experiment and not a completed model. Actually far from it…
