News Home > Online Advertising
Microsoft accuses Google of monopolising online advertising
Google's takeover of DoubleClick has prompted rival firms, such as Microsoft and AT&T, to claim the deal could create a monopoly in the online advertising world.
Seeing Microsoft - often accused of being a monopoly itself - voice antitrust complaints against Google has been viewed as ironic by critics, but there is certainly a powerful argument to suggest that Google will become dangerously powerful if it is able to dominate both the search ad and display ad markets.
Yahoo is currently the leader in the latter, but Google's $3.1 billion tie-up with leading ad firm DoubleClick could change that quickly.
However, some believe that the search and display markets should be treated as separate entities and that Google will therefore not monopolise any one sector. "It seems there is a clear distinction between Google's business and the business it is entering with the Acquisition of DoubleClick," Gartner analyst Andrew Frank told the Financial Times.
However, Brad Smith of Microsoft claims Google clearly wants to integrate the two forms of online advertising, partly so that clients can better understand the effectiveness of overall internet ad campaigns.
It could also mean that Google is able to directly influence the revenues of other internet companies that may be its direct competitors - a situation that many would see as unfair.
However, big rivals will not give up in the online marketplace and the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo will have a huge influence for years to come.
Recent research from SearchIgnite and RBC Capital Markets indicates that Yahoo's new, improved Internet Advertising platform, Panama, has had a positive effect on the company's fortunes.
Online Advertising news posted on 17 April 2007
