Zango’s response comes on the heels of talk on adult webmaster boards that reported on Zango’s controversial role within the adult webmaster community, and how many webmasters feel its use could change the fundamentals of the affiliate/sponsor relationship. Some webmasters allege Zango intentionally misleads and diverts the surfer to click on its software generated popup ads, thereby undercutting affiliate sales.
However, Zango officials claim their product in no way interferes with normal surfing activity because the user consents to its download and knows what to expect.
Zango and Seekmo, the company’s adult advertising platform, claims that its software offering operates by popping up contextual ads on to the users’ desktop who have downloaded the software, “Fulfilling consumers’ growing demand for free, sought-after online content, while automating and monetizing relationships between content providers, web publishers and advertisers of all sizes,” the company states.
Seekmo was “specifically designed to help [adult] web publishers monetize their business,” Zango’s Senior Business Development Director Rocco Bruzzese told XBIZ.
After downloading the software, the user is served contextual popup ads while surfing, from companies that have bid on relevant keywords in an auction-based system. This bidding system, similar to other pay-per-click search engines, has pitted large adult sponsor programs against each other by bidding on competitors’ keywords.
Bruzzese said that he does not believe that Zango-served popover ads are diversionary or misleading for the surfer because the user consents to the software download. The company claims that all ads it serves are clearly labeled as coming from Zango.
The company would not disclose how many adult industry clients it has. Zango claims to have more than 200,000 consumer downloads each day with 20 million-plus users total.
Overall, Bruzzese believes that his company’s recent controversy originated when, “An individual jumped to a conclusion and launched a forum-based war of words without even bothering to contact us to make sure he understood what was happening.”
Many adult webmasters claim Zango’s method of serving ads undercuts the affiliate on whose banner the surfer clicked, effectively “stealing” his commission and giving it to the sponsor who bid on the keyword.
Zango serves ads based on a consumer’s Internet use and search activity from browsing, including keywords from the websites a consumer visits. However, it does not collect or track personally identifiable information, according to Bruzzese.
“The ads we deliver on behalf of thousands of advertisers are relevant, targeted — for the consumer — [and] not disruptive because they do not interrupt the enjoyment of the free content they wanted to access when they agreed to install our software,” Bruzzese said.
Many adult webmasters disagree, claiming Zango-served popover ads are intentionally misleading and diversionary because they interfere with a surfer-activated click — that is to say the ad automatically pops up over the surfer’s intended destination.
Bruzzese claims Zango does not in any way overwrite cookies that are tagged with affiliate ID codes.
“We deliver ads when a consumer is searching or browsing the web and likely looking for goods or services,” Bruzzese said. “In other words, at the precise moment that advertising is beneficial both to the consumer and to the advertiser.”
