MySpace passes Yahoo! to take US display ad lead

by Staff, Brand Republic 29-Aug-08, 10:20

SAN FRANCISCO - News Corporation's Fox Interactive Media and its group of websites, led by MySpace, have overtaken Yahoo! in the US online display market measured by number of ads viewed, according to new research.

Fox Interactive's sites attracted 56.8bn ad views in June compared to 53.1bn ad views on Yahoo!'s sites, a drop of around 12% from May, according to comScore.

However Yahoo! display ads are reportedly sold at five times the price of ads on MySpace, which has had trouble pulling in the higher rates of rivals Yahoo! and AOL.

The News Corp-owned site said it was closing the gap on its competitors in terms of display ad revenue after the revamp of its home page in June, which has attracted big-name sponsors such as fast-food chain Wendy's.

Yahoo! raised concerns about comScore's measurement methodology following the release of the results. In response, comScore said that Yahoo! had experienced an "organic decline" in display ad views, which was unrelated to any changes in the company's measurement methods.

It is a further blow for Yahoo! and its embattled management led by chief executive Jerry Yang.