Growth Of Online Is Underestimated
The growth of online is underestimated and there are major opportunities still ahead for the internet and advertisers, according to Yahoo! chairman and CEO Terry Semel.
“The users are now becoming the programmers. The users are now becoming the publishers. The users are now starting to create a lot of the content and the opportunity for advertisers is really in its infancy and I believe it will grow,” he said, speaking at the IAB Engage 2006 conference in London yesterday.
He also said that the media industry needs to stop thinking about online as a new medium, as it is not new, will no go away and will continue to flourish, and that there needs to be more focus on integrated media thinking.
“[Online] needs to be part of the overall way that companies are going to try to reach their audiences instead of having one thought process for digital and another process for what we call traditional,” he said.
“Those words need to go and the thinking has to become more integrated… we need to think of it in a more holistic way and stop thinking about that new thing called the internet, it’s not new anymore… and it’s not going to slow down.”
The Yahoo! boss also said he believed that the future of mobile was bright, saying that a year ago he wasn’t so sure. “I think that what we’re seeing in a new generation is that big is not necessarily better,” he said. “We shouldn’t in any way shape or form underestimate the amount of things that wireless devices are capable of doing today and will be capable of doing in the next year or three.”
He also feels that the industry is going to learn the most effective ways to advertise on these platforms and devices. “We’re going to learn together. Will it happen? Absolutely, positively,” he said.
Behavioural targeting will also be key he believes, with this form of marketing starting for Yahoo! in the UK in the next couple of weeks. “It’s very, very effective and graphical advertising I think goes extremely well with behavioural targeting,” he said.
Semel believes that this form of advertising will without question be appropriate for IPTV as well. “We no longer think what Yahoo! does is provide internet access to information and entertainment and knowledge,” he admitted. “We think of all devices‌ and IPTV is absolutely something that we have been working on for the past two years in several different countries.”
Yahoo!: 020 7808 4200 www.yahoo.co.uk IAB: 020 8683 955 www.iabuk.net