This page is a timeline of online advertising. Major launches, milestones and other major events are included.
E-commerce |
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Digital content |
Retail goods and services |
Online shopping |
Mobile commerce |
Customer service |
E-procurement |
Purchase-to-pay |
Super-apps |
Overview
editDecade | Description |
---|---|
Late 1970s–
1980s |
Much of online advertising during this time period is done through Email, in the form of spamming.[1] Such activities have continued to this day, but became much more common after the ban against the commercial use of the internet was lifted in 1991.[2] |
1990s–
2000s |
With people now having their own websites, banner ads are used as a source of income to pay for these websites and as side money. Companies like Prodigy, Global Network Navigator (GNN), and HotWired are pioneers in the business of online advertising.[3] |
2000s–
2010s |
As more companies capable of providing advertising services emerge, several major successful companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL begin to dominate the market.[3] |
Timeline
editYear | Month and date | Event Type | Advertisement Type | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
1978 | May 3 | Milestone | Email marketing | The first instance of email spam is sent, the purpose of which is advertising.[1] |
1980 | Launch | N/A | Usenet, a popular discussion forum, launches, and is occasionally overwhelmed with advertising spam posts.[4] | |
1984 | Launch | Banner advertising | Prodigy launches, offering one of the first online advertising services; although these ads are always in the same spot on the screen, and are non-clickable.[4]. | |
1991 | March | Milestone | N/A | The ban on commercial use on the NSFNET is lifted by the National Science Foundation (NSF).[2][5] |
1993 | Launch | Banner advertising | GNN, one of the first web publication and web advertising services, is launched by O'Reilly Media.[6] | |
1994 | Milestone | Banner advertising | The first ever clickable advertisement is sold to a Silicon Valley law firm by GNN.[7] | |
1994 | Launch | N/A | HotWired, the first commercial web magazine, launches.[8][4] | |
1994 | October 27 | Milestone | Banner advertising | The first ever banner is sold to AT&T, and is visible on the first issue of HotWired.[9][7][3] |
1995 | May | Acquisition | Banner advertising | GNN is acquired by AOL for $11 million.[10][4] |
1996 | Launch | Ad serving | DoubleClick, a prominent online advertising company, launches.[4][11] | |
1996 | July | Launch, Milestone | Search advertising | Yahoo! launches the very first search ads in their search engine.[12] |
1997 | Invention | Pop-up ads | Pop-up ads are invented by Ethan Zuckerman, and considered to be a more aggressive and disliked advertising strategy.[13] | |
1998 | September 4 | Launch | N/A | Google, an online search engine, launches.[14][15] |
1998 | Invention, Launch, Milestone | Ad exchange | OpenX, one of the first ad exchanges, launches as an open source project.[16] | |
1998 | Launch | Search advertising | GoTo (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), a search engine which offers search advertising, launches.[13] | |
1999 | Defunction | N/A | HotWired is shutdown after its domain is re-purposed by Lycos.[17] | |
2000 | October 23 | Launch | Search advertising | Google launches the prominent AdWords service, which allows for advertising based on a user's browsing habits and their search keywords.[18][7] |
2002 | Invention, Milestone | Pop-up ads | With the annoyance brought about by pop-up ads, many prominent web browsers such as Firefox, Netscape, and Opera begin to roll out features to block these ads.[19] | |
2003 | October 7 | Acquisition | Search advertising | Overture (formerly GoTo) is acquired by Yahoo! to enrich their search engine.[20] |
2004 | February | Launch | Social media advertising | Facebook, the most popular social media network, launches.[21] |
2005 | February 14 | Launch | Banner advertising | YouTube, a popular video sharing website, launches.[22] |
2005 | Launch | Demand-side platform | Criteo, one of the first demand-side platforms, launches.[23] | |
2006 | October | Acquisition | N/A | YouTube is acquired by Google for $1.65 billion.[24] |
2006 | Invention, Launch, Milestone | Ad blocking | Adblock, a very prominent ad-blocking add-on for web browsers, is released.[25] | |
2006 | Launch | Content discovery platform | Outbrain, a notable advertising company that powers external recirculation widgets, launches.[26] | |
2006 | August | Launch | Native advertising | YouTube launches its video advertising platform, which has a giant reach today.[27] |
2007 | Launch | Content discovery platform | Taboola, a notable advertising company that powers external recirculation widgets, launches.[28][29] | |
2007 | Launch | Behavioral targeting,Social media advertising | Facebook launches Beacon, an intricate advertising platform that tracks Facebook user's activities on websites outside of Facebook.[30] | |
2007 | April 14 | Acquisition | Ad serving | Google acquires DoubleClick, an advertising platform, for $3.1 billion.[31] |
2007 | May 18 | Acquisition | Ad serving | Microsoft acquires AQuantive, an advertising platform, for $6.5 billion.[32][33] |
2007 | Launch | Demand-side platform | MediaMath, a notable demand-side platform, launches.[34] | |
2008 | March | Launch | Demand-side platform | Rocket Fuel Inc., a notable demand-side platform, launches.[35] |
2008 | Launch | Ad blocking | Rick Petnel creates Easylist, one of the most popular filter lists available for ad-blocking web browser add-ons.[36] The filter list Easylist Privacy is also available, and focuses on the blocking of web elements that may invade a user's privacy. | |
2009 | September 18 | Launch | Ad exchange | Google launches its own ad exchange platform with DoubleClick.[37] |
2010 | February 22 | Launch | Ad serving | Google launches DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), an advertising software as a service.[38] |
2010 | April 12 | Launch | Social media advertising | Twitter launches Promoted Tweets, which allows advertisers to pay for tweets to be shown in a user's feed.[39] |
2013 | April 26 | Acquisition | Ad serving | Facebook acquires Atlas Solutions from Microsoft for $100 million, in order to enrich its already bustling advertising platform.[40][41][33][42] |
2013 | October | Launch | Social media advertising | Instagram, a popular image sharing platform, releases its feature of having sponsored posts appear on user's feeds.[43] |
2014 | March 24 | Launch | Social media advertising | Pinterest, a creative image sharing platform, launches it Promoted Pins service which allows for additional advertising in a user's feed.[44] |
2014 | June 23 | Launch | Ad blocking | UBlock Origin, a very prominent ad-blocking extension for web browsers, launches.[45] |
2014 | November 14 | Launch* | Ad serving | Facebook re-launches Atlas.[46] |
2016 | June 14 | Launch | Social media advertising | Snapchat, a popular messaging app, begins to include advertisements between user's "stories".[47] |
2016 | August | Major event | Ad blocking | Facebook states that they will start blocking the use of ad blocking extensions, specifically Adblock Plus and Adblock. In response to this, these ad-blockers began to block Facebook's blocking in a back-and-forth "war."[48] |
(*) Such launches are not initial launches, but rather re-launches.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b "Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of Spam". www.templetons.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ a b "NSFNET - The Internet Launching Pad". www.livinginternet.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ a b c "History of Online Display Advertising | Vantage Local". www.vantagelocal.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ a b c d e "The History of Online Advertising". AdPushup Blog. 2013-07-03. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Nifty 50: THE INTERNET". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Electronic Commerce - CHM Revolution". www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ a b c "Online advertising: A history from 1993 to the present day [infographic]". Marketing Tech News. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Electronic Commerce - CHM Revolution". www.computerhistory.org. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ Wasserman, Todd. "This Is the World's First Banner Ad". Mashable. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "AOL Buys Everyone". tidbits.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "DoubleClick Inc.: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
- ^ Heine, Christopher (27 October 2014). "20 Years of Digital Advertising: From Banner Ads to Sponsored Snapchats". Adweek. Adweek. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ a b Cook, Karla (12 September 2016). "A Brief History of Online AdvertisingA Brief History of Online Advertising". HubSpot. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
- ^ "Company – Google". www.google.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Google Founded By Sergey Brin, Larry Page... And Hubert Chang?!? -- InformationWeek". 2011-06-28. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
- ^ "Company Facts - OpenX". OpenX. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
- ^ "20 Years Of Web Publishing: Former HotWired And Pathfinder Execs Look Back On 1994". International Business Times. 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Google AdWords Turns 15: A Look Back At The Origins Of A $60 Billion Business". Search Engine Land. 2015-10-28. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Pop-up ads: now even worse - Geek.com". Geek.com. 2002-12-24. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Yahoo! Inc. - Press Release". 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ Phillips, Sarah (2007-07-25). "A brief history of Facebook". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "YouTube Grows Up: A Visual History of How the Video-Sharing Site Has Changed Over The Past 8 Years - New Media Rockstars". New Media Rockstars. 2013-02-14. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Performance Marketing That Drives More Sales | Criteo". www.criteo.com. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
- ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Peters, Jeremy W. (2006-10-09). "Google to Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "About Adblock Plus". adblockplus.org. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
- ^ "EP 43: Ori Lahav / OutBrain - Startup Camel Podcast". Startup Camel Podcast. 2014-10-05. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
- ^ "YouTube Launches Video Ad Platform". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Taboola | crunchbase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
- ^ "Our Story | World's Largest Discovery Platform | Taboola". www.taboola.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
- ^ "Facebook's Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought". PCWorld. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ Story, Louise; Helft, Miguel (2007-04-14). "Google Buys DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
- ^ "Microsoft to Acquire aQuantive, Inc. | News Center". news.microsoft.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ a b "What Facebook's Atlas Means for Brands and Agencies". Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "About MediaMath – MediaMath". www.mediamath.com. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
- ^ "Programmatic Marketing Company | Rocket Fuel". Rocket Fuel. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
- ^ Whoriskey, Peter (2008-06-25). "One Man, One Long List, No More Web Ads". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
- ^ "Google Launches DoubleClick Ad Exchange". Bloomberg.com. 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
- ^ "The next generation of ad serving for online publishers". Official Google Blog. Retrieved 2017-01-13.
- ^ "Twitter launches 'promoted tweets' in a bid to make money". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ Kern, Eliza (2013-02-28). "Facebook purchases Microsoft's Atlas Solutions for reported $100 million". gigaom.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "About Atlas | Atlas Solutions". atlassolutions.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Facebook to Acquire Atlas from Microsoft | Facebook Newsroom". Retrieved 2017-02-09.
- ^ Constine, Josh; Crook, Jordan. "This Is What Instagram Ads Look Like". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Pinterest gets serious about ad revenue with new 'promoted pins'". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2017-01-12.
- ^ "gorhill/uBlock". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
- ^ Marshall, Jack (2016-11-18). "Shrugging off 'Atlas,' Facebook Continues Pivot from Ad Tech". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ Vincent, James (2016-06-14). "Snapchat will start showing ads between your friends' stories". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
- ^ "Here's Why Facebook Is Always Going to Win the Ad-Blocking War". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-02-08.