Ask Sponsored Listings, a division of IAC, acquires direct navigation company Sendori.
Ask Sponsored Listings, a division of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI), has acquired direct navigation monetization company Sendori for an undisclosed amount.
Sendori offers an alternative to domain parking that automatically redirects type-in traffic rather than requiring a user to click on a sponsored link. For example, if you type in a car insurance domain name that would typically show a parked page full of links, with Sendori it may be forwarded directly to GEICO.
Sendori has 130,000 advertisers and access to 33 million unique visitors per month. The company has 11 people including contractors, and 10 of them will be going to IAC.
I’ve been skeptical of Sendori since it launched, especially because a similar service from advertising.com failed. But that service was launched before domain parking went mainstream, and Sendori was able to attach itself to domain parking companies by offering an alternative monetization. Sendori would serve one of its redirects only if it would generate a higher RPM than a parked page for the domain owner.
Sendori has also been used for affiliate arbitrage, allowing people to buy traffic and forward it as a referrer to sites such as eBay.
The company raised capital from First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Maples Investments and Felicis Ventures. It was founded in 2006.
This acquisition is a good sign for the domain name industry and adds further credibility to the direct navigation channel. There’s another lesson in this for domain companies: file patents on your core technology. It makes you a better acquisition target.
Johnny says
Heck yes….domainers are getting legitimized with this buyout by Ask.com / IAC. I think this has big implications, especially if you combine this with the recent opening of Google for Domains to any domain owner. The market is getting “recognized”, as so are domainers.
They are saying, “Good domain owners…bring us your traffic…you passed the big test….we acknowledge you exist and respect your traffic’s worth”.
I hope. 🙂
RegFeeNames.com says
I agree Johnny, more and more people are eventually waking up and seeing how big an industry the domain industry actually is.
Regards,
Robbie
wannadevelop.com says
I wonder how profitable Sendori really is as of late?? Anybody want to take a guess?!
The problem with all new monetization services is that while there is hype and press surrounding the service/product… They may continue to grow, but do the results match up?? Do they deliver sales and leads and a decent ROI for advertisers or better payouts for traffic aggregators?
I personally never tried Sendori or know anybody else that have…and I don’t think I’ve ever even came across a page that was delivered via Sendori as far as I recall. Would love to see some examples though.
I am not too crazy about the Sendori website either. It could of used more background and general information on their services as well as provide some examples or screenshots. It hasn’t been updated in forever it seems and it is why I never even paid attention to them. It looks weak.
Maybe behind the scenes after all they did have a decent operation going with some potential? I guess ASK.com thinks so.
Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com
Andrew Allemann says
@ Wanna Develop – the good thing the did was get a bunch of advertisers, so they weren’t dependent on Google/Yahoo. Also, as PPC revenue went down more of their pages would have been triggered.
I suspect Ask valued their customer base of advertisers more than domain owners.
Donny says
I like and respect what the guys have done at Sendori. They have a lot more companies who are getting into the zero-click game right now, so it was probably a good idea to sell now. I just hope that IAC doesn’t destroy them like they have done some of their other purchases. It will be interesting to see what happens in 6 months.
Tan Tran says
Donny,
Are there any direct competitors that you know of to Sendori that are established now? We had been trying to get a hold of Sendori for about a month now but no one would return our phone calls. (Now we know why). It may take them a few weeks to get up to speed with transition of the buyout.
Would love to be able to shop around to see which 0-click service is best for us.
Tan
Mike says
beware of those comnpany here…… they do not pay…… evidences available if you want!!