Yahoo! and Media.net Launch Contextual Ads for Web Publishers

New Offering Allows Quality Web Publishers to Generate Incremental Advertising Revenue

SUNNYVALE, Calif. & AUSTIN, Texas -- Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Media.net announced a long-term agreement to launch Yahoo! Bing Network Contextual Ads, powered by Media.net. The program aims to provide web publishers with a powerful and effective new solution for earning advertising revenue. Publishers can now use the Media.net platform to create and customize ad units that display relevant text ads from across the Yahoo! Bing Network.

"Since its inception, Media.net has invested tremendous resources — people, capital and time — to build what Yahoo! identifies to be a terrific monetization solution for web publishers," said Al Echamendi, Vice President, Business Development, Yahoo!. "During our evaluation process, we recognized Media.net as a technology and innovation leader, with a strong management team that has a significant business track record and industry experience."

"Yahoo! holds a key leadership position in online advertising," said Divyank Turakhia, Founder & CEO at Media.net. "Teaming up with Yahoo! allows us to offer web publishers with a solution that generates additional revenue for them and provides customization, control and flexibility that they would like."

Media.net will exclusively manage technology, business operations and relationships with respect to publishers worldwide for the program. Yahoo! will manage technology, business operations and relationships with respect to advertisers and drive advertiser sales worldwide for the program. Yahoo! will also manage all aspects of network operations to adhere to existing quality traffic standards.

The program is designed to work for websites that have premium content, where placing contextually relevant ads could result in high user engagement rates. The program is currently limited only to websites that primarily receive the majority of their traffic from the United States, Canada or United Kingdom.

Key Features of the program for publishers include:

Easy-to-use: Ads can be added to a publisher's website in minutes using the Media.net powered self-serve platform. Publishers can select an ad size and copy-paste the HTML provided on their web pages to start displaying targeted sponsored links and ad topics.
Premium advertiser pool: Access to the Yahoo! Bing Network consisting of millions of ads and ad topics.
Robust targeting: Proprietary Media.net technology scans all the content on web pages and delivers highly relevant ads.
Customization: Publishers can use the Media.net platform to pick from multiple ad sizes, skin the ads to match their look-and-feel requirements, and even request highly customized ad units.
Control: Publishers can influence the ad targeting on a web page by providing hints (keywords). Also, unwanted advertisers and ad topics can be easily blocked.
Dynamic optimization: Ad units consist of sponsored links, ad topics or a combination of both, as determined on an impression-by-impression basis to maximize ad yield.
Placement flexibility: Publishers can run ad units in tandem with or in place of their current ads.
Mobile ads: Publishers can choose to display mobile optimized ad units on their web pages to users browsing the site from any iOS (iPhone, iPad and iTouch), Android and Blackberry phone or tablet.
Real support: Full-time ad specialists from Media.net provide support to publishers. Publishers can interact with a real person to help with performance improvements, optimization and customizations.
To learn more about the program, visit http://contextualads.yahoo.com.

Advertisers can access this publisher inventory by signing up with the Yahoo! Bing Network. Existing Yahoo! Bing Network search advertisers that have selected to distribute their ads via syndicated search partners or that have opted-in to advertise on the content network will automatically and instantly access this high-quality publisher inventory.

Implementation of the deal has already begun with Contextual Ads appearing on several Yahoo! properties.

Photos/Images Available:
http://contextualads.yahoo.com/press/logos_and_images.zip

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! is focused on creating deeply personal digital experiences that keep more than half a billion people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the globe. Yahoo!'s unique combination of Science + Art + Scale connects advertisers to the consumers who build their businesses. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the pressroom (pressroom.yahoo.net) or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).

About Media.net

Since its founding, Media.net has constantly broken new ground in building innovative contextual advertising solutions that make generating revenue from ads easy and effective for web publishers. Media.net is privately held, backed by certain funds managed by Ashmore Investment Management Limited, a subsidiary of Ashmore Group plc (ASHM:LN) and Directi Group. It has over 400 employees in key operation centers across - Austin, Dubai, Mumbai & Bangalore. In the United States, Media.net operates primarily from Austin, TX. For more information, visit http://www.media.net.