GoTo.com stock jumps with advertiser base expanding
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - Shares of GoTo.com Inc.
GOTO.O surged more than 30 percent on Friday after the
Internet search engine company said it logged more than 2
million unique visitors during March and expanded the number of
paying advertisers to more than 25,000.
GoTo.com shares were up 11-1/2, or about 31 percent, around
midday at 47-3/8 on the Nasdaq stock market.
The Pasadena, Calif.-based GoTo.com said its base of paying
advertisers was one of the largest and most valuable on the
Web, dwarfing the advertising base of other firms.
Even so, one analyst questioned the significance of the
sheer size of GoTo's advertiser base, pointing out the cost of
running ads with GoTo is much lower than on competing venues.
"This is a pretty dubious distinction," said Patrick Keane,
senior analyst at research firm Jupiter Communications.
"GoTo is a very different animal" than other Web
advertising vehicles, Keane said. "You have people that can
sign up without having to deal with a salesperson and that have
these very tiny campaigns."
By contrast, Web advertising firms like DoubleClick Inc.
DCLK.O focus their client's advertising campaigns beyond
so-called "banner ads" by tracking the surfing habits and
consumer buying of Internet users.
"DoubleClick has a much more intimate relationship with
their individual advertisers than GoTo does," Keane said. "Any
schmo with a Web site can go to GoTo and advertise."
"Granted that same schmo can go to DoubleClick but they
can't afford it," he said. "It's much easier to afford a quick
run on GoTo than with DoubleClick."
Still, GoTo.com boasted its paying ad base was
significantly higher than DoubleClick, which reported only
4,400 advertisers as of the end of 1999, and Internet media
network Yahoo! Inc. YHOO.O, which had only 3,550.
"The more impressive metric would be the average contract
per advertiser," Keane said of GoTo.com's claim. "If GoTo could
share that figure with us that would be something very
interesting. I can guarantee the number is going to be
extremely low." |
