The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

Own Both Sides of the Market or Someone Else Will

If you control the plumbing on both the buyer and seller side, you don't just win transactions — you define the rules of the game.

Hit $1B run rate last week - business is running well, could run faster. Launched new DFP product on GOOG technology stack.

On display leapfrogging Search: Big 6 agencies driving shift to allow them to add value. What prevents this from happening? Large pubs stop participating to prevent commoditization - need to find a way to stay whole. Technology adoption by agencies.

On Project Butterfly: Yahoo selling re-targeting from Search. Can we do it? Privacy issue and lots of opportunity on Remarketing using DCLK data first (e.g. Searches for flowers). No question it brings huge value but the question is privacy and timing - want to handle same way as IBA launch. Stronger proposition to pubs than Facebook Connect.

On 5 Big Bets: Yahoo is #1 - still almost double. Is Facebook the bigger threat? They have the most impressions - He who has the most impressions wins (Eric). We are not a leader in O&O inventory (except YouTube) - We don't have a set of verticals (Auto, Tech, Finance).

Platform Metrics: Pub: 50% share, Adv: 67% share. Pub side is strategic - Atlas didn't have strong Pub-side. Having both Adv and Pub side allows more seamless integration between both - zero discrepancies vs. up to 5% discrepancies.

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Court Exhibit
United States v. Google LLC (Ad Tech)
1:23-cv-00108 (VAED), Trial Ex. PTX0051 — DOJ public archive
April 6, 2010
Public domain
View the primary source →