Search Volume, Query Revenue up in Ask.com Q4
Growth in both search volume and revenue per query contributed to a 46% year-over-year increase in Q4 2006 revenue for the media and advertising division at IAC/InterActive Corp., the parent of search engine Ask.com.
The division, which also includes local Web directory Citysearch and the Evite online invitation service, posted revenue of $159.8 million for the quarter.
IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller said the company was still considering whether to renew its ad-syndication deal with Google, under which Google supplies some of the pay-per-click ads on Ask.com results pages.
“We had a very good partnership with Google,” he told an investor conference after the release of the company’s financials. “They are the incumbent. It will take a lot, but there are options and we want to play this sensibly.”
Diller pointed out that the growth in Ask.com search queries, from 1.1 billion in 2005 to 1.75 billion in 2006, made the engine an attractive partner for Google ad rivals such as Yahoo! or Microsoft. “That’s a lot of ad possibilities going on,” he said. “If somebody out there wants more share, more queries or advertising revenue, we are pretty good clients.”
Responding to a question whether Ask.com would launch a publisher network on which contextual ads could be served apart from search — similar to those operated by Google and Yahoo! and planned by Microsoft for later this year — Diller said such a network “is not in IAC’s interest.”
“As far as the ad network business, there are as you know three players in it currently,” he said. “I think there probably won’t be a fourth.”
Fourth-quarter revenue for IAC as a whole company $1.8 billion, up 8% over the same period in 2005. But net income for the quarter fell to $16.7 million from $113.1 million last year.
