Meebo, a popular web-based chat service, has announced that it is going to extend its successful advertising platform to include the growing number of partners that are deploying its Community IM product, which launched last year.
Last summer Meebo launched interactive social ads on its main chat portal at meebo.com, presenting users with small icons at the bottom of their chat windows that would display a popup when clicked (users can also share the ads they especially like with their friends). A number of major corporations have run campaigns using the unique advertising platform, and so far Meebo is posting impressive results: the company says that it has seen an average 1% CTR with 10% of chat users sharing ads with their online buddies.
Now Meebo is ready to extend its successful ad platform to its partners that are using Community IM, Meebo’s chat product that allows web publishers to implement persistent browser-based chat clients on their websites (it’s akin to Facebook Chat). Ads will be displayed in the chat bar at the bottom of the browser (see the screenshot below) and will expand when the user clicks on the small icon shown. Community IM sites participate in a rev share agreement with Meebo, and will be able to use ads from Meebo’s inventory or from their own.
Alongside the announcement, Meebo has also revealed a handful of new partner sites that will be deploying Community IM, including CafeMom, StarPulse, IGN, Current TV, CrispyGamer, DailyStrength.org, GGL Global Gaming, and Internet Brands (over 40 partners have now announced plans to integrate the product into their sites, though some are taking their time).
One of the concerns often brought up about Meebo, especially after its $25 million funding round last year, is how the site plans to generate revenue. The initial results of the new ad platform on meebo.com have been encouraging, and if partner sites continue to see similarly impressive results, Community IM could well turn into a very lucrative product for the company.
I wonder how this will do following the post on online advertising being dead?
TechFilipino
I wonder if they will start charging the partners for the product, if the Ads revenues are not enough to keep them profitable.
I think this touches on the ‘advertising is dead’ post and also on the possible subscription models these sites will need to adopt.
I’d pay a dollar or two per month for Meebo.
I pay $20 a year for flickr and love it.
I pay $20 per month to have Yahoo Mail Plus, which basically just means I get pop-access. Why not use Gmail? Well i’ve had my Yahoo email forever and I like Yahoo email and think Gmail sucks on many levels, chiefly UI.
Ever used Gmail’s IMAP or Pop server? That’s a load of fun, not to mention all your email gets spammed for some reason.
I pay $20 for LinkedIn and am not super happy with it although I don’t use it to contact people really. I think I signed up to send an InMessage once.
What i’m getting at is that if all these companies with rabid users charged a fair rate— a few bucks a month say– I think most people would be comfortable with that. Any advertising revenue on top of that is just gravy, right?
Forget the whole “if you’re a member you get advertising free pages”. Who came up with that and why do we adhere to these old notions?
I think the problem happens when VCs want their 10X investment return and overambitious CEOs and VPs want to make projections that rely on $20/month subscription fees to make them happy.
If you’re charging $20/month you better be getting someone laid or doing something IRL, like netflix.
That reminds me, I need to cancel my Netflix account except that I can’t find 3 of the movies. Therein lies the business model.
“if all these companies with rabid users charged a fair rate— a few bucks a month say– I think most people would be comfortable with that.”
Bzzzt !!! Wrong !!! If Yahoo starts charging just $1 per month for its email service, then I would be surprised if even 1 out of 1000 users continue to use Yahoo instead of moving to Gmail or Hotmail. Considering that Yahoo must be making a lot more than $1 CPM, they are better off with an ad-model.
** yahoo mail is $20 per year i meant.
hoyah what you all on about
Awesome! Meebo.com rocks for online IM.
Yeah..It is useful for me only when I am not able to login through Yahoo Messenger Software due to some probs…
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
i love meebo and use it every day actually. I click on their adds all the time and 100% of the time it is by accident. Start selling icons like everyone else:D E.g., “Hey is your friends bday want to send her an icon via IM… $1.00 please” Sold
It can be real useful for some people and it is pretty much possible that some people may get frustrated with it.
I myself never used meebo but I will do it very soon.
Mohammad Afaq
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