AllAdvantage

AllAdvantage was an Internet advertising company that positioned itself as the world’s first "infomediary" by paying its users/members a portion of the advertising revenue generated by their online viewing habits. [cite web
url = http://ipo.nasdaq.com/TextSection.asp?cikid=71762&fnid=3262&sec=bd
title = Business Description (AllAdvantage IPO filing)
accessdate = 2006-10-08
publisher = NASDAQ/Edgar Online] It became most well known for its slogan "Get Paid to Surf the Web," a phrase that has since become synonymous with a wide array of online ad revenue sharing systems (see, e.g., paid to surf).

History

AllAdvantage was launched on March 31 1999, by Jim Jorgensen, Johannes Pohle, Carl Anderson, and Oliver Brock. During its nearly 2 years of operation, it raised nearly $200 Million in venture capital and grew to more than 10 million members in its first 18 months of operation. [cite web
url = http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/300161
title = $100 Million Investment Round For AllAdvantage.com
accessdate = 2006-10-08
date = 2000-02-07
work = internetnews.com] The company's practice of compensating existing members for referring new members led it to become one of the most heavily promoted websites of its time. [cite web
url = http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news1999/sept99/news4907.html
title = And you thought your week was dull...
accessdate = 2006-12-08
date = 2000-09-01
work = Media Life Magazine] That popularity was reflected in the ranking of AllAdvantage.com among the top 20 of many website traffic indices during most of the company's existence, including Nielsen//NetRatings. [cite web
url = http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=322381
title = At-Work Users Dominating Web Usage
accessdate = 2006-12-08
date = 2000-03-16
work = ClickZ] That method of promotion also led the company to be heavily criticized for its early inability to prevent its members from spamming for referrals in order to collect additional income. [cite web
url = http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/00/02/07/000207opfoster.html
title = Viral marketing goes one step too far -- to a place where friends spam friends
accessdate = 2008-05-22
date = 2000-02-07
work = Infoworld] It eventually overcame many of those problems [cite web
url = http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/secu/article.php/3742226
title = Social Networking Spam: Just Say No
accessdate = 2008-05-22
date = 2008-04-22
work = Datamation] and company executives were deeply involved in anti-spam legislative proposals, including the first anti-spam bill to pass the US House of Representatives. [cite web
url = http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-243310.html
title = House approves anti-spam legislation
accessdate = 2008-05-22
date = 2000-07-18
work = News.com]

AllAdvantage ultimately fell victim to the sharp decline in advertising spending as the dot-com bubble burst and the U.S. economy entered a recessionary period in mid-2000. AllAdvantage planned an initial public offering of stock in early 2000, underwritten by renowned investment banker Frank Quattrone and his firm Credit Suisse First Boston. [cite web
url = http://www.secinfo.com/dut49.51Gk.d.htm
title = Alladvantage Com Inc · S-1/A · On 3/23/00 · EX-1.01
accessdate = 2006-12-08
date = 2000-03-23
publisher = SEC Info] As the IPO market continued to sour through mid-2000, the offering plans were cancelled. The company continued to seek new sources of revenue and expanded its offerings to include sweepstakes. [cite web
url = http://news.com.com/Sweepstakes+sites+play+for+survival/2100-1023_3-246846.html
title = Sweepstakes sites play for survival
accessdate = 2006-12-08
last = Mariano
first = Gwendolyn
date = 2000-10-10
work = CNET News.com] But the company finally halted consumer-facing operations in February 2001. By the time it closed its doors, the company had paid out over $160 million to its members. [cite book
last= Hoffman
first= Greg
title= $2 Million Cough
publisher= Kendall/Carson Press
year= 2007
month= May
isbn= 0-9792-2350-4]

Industry contributions

AllAdvantage contributed several enduring concepts to the online marketplace. For example, AllAdvantage was one of the first implementations of the infomediary concept [cite web
url = http://news.cnet.com/Pay-per-view-ads-get-new-twist/2100-1017_3-223715.html
title = Pay per view ads get new twist
accessdate = 2008-07-07
last = McNaughton
first = Kora
date = 1999-03-30
work = CNET News.com] to reach a mass market. The concept of the infomediary was first suggested by McKinsey consultants and professors John Hagel, III, and Marc Singer in their book "NetWorth". [cite book
last= Hagel
first= John
title= NetWorth
publisher= Harvard Business School Press
year= 1999
month= January
isbn= 0-87584-889-3] (Hagel and Singer eventually became informal advisers to the company.)

The company's Viewbar software was one of the earliest desktop user tracking and ad targeting technologies. The Viewbar displayed advertisements in a narrow application window that could be docked to the bottom of the user's screen, targeting those advertisements to the content being viewed by the user as they browsed websites. The same technologies, minus the permission of users or monetary compensation, became the basis of the adware and spyware industries. [cite web
url = http://www.atpm.com/6.06/alladvantage.shtml
title = Review: AllAdvantage Viewbar 1.0
accessdate = 2006-12-08
last = Chvatik
first = Daniel
year = 2000
month = June
work = ATPM]

The company also appointed the world's first corporate Chief Privacy Officer, creating the role as a senior level executive responsible for protecting the privacy and security of user data and managing a variety of risks and threats to the integrity of the service. [cite web
url = http://www.businessweek.com/careers/content/dec2000/ca20001214_253.htm
title = The Rise of the Chief Privacy Officer
accessdate = 2006-12-08
last = Mendels
first = Pamela
date = 2000-12-14
work = Business Week] The company appointed privacy lawyer Ray Everett-Church to the newly created position in August 1999, sparking a trend that quickly spread among major corporations, both offline and online. By 2001, the non-profit research organization Privacy and American Business reported that a significant number of Fortune 500 firms had appointed senior executives with the title or role of Chief Privacy Officer. [cite web
url = http://www.wired.com/news/business/1,37592-0.html
title = Privacy Grows Up as CPOs Move In
accessdate = 2006-12-08
last = Oakes
first = Chris
date = 2000-07-19
publisher = Wired News] By 2008, the International Association of Privacy Professionals boasted that it had more than 5000 privacy officers or other privacy executives as members. [cite web
url=https://www.privacyassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1533&Itemid=116
title = IAPP Reaches 5000 Member Milestone
accessdate = 2008-07-09
date = 2008-06-11
publisher = International Association of Privacy Professionals]

AllAdvantage is perhaps most remembered for its successful adaptation of the "viral marketing" concept, a term first coined by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. In viral marketing, members of the service promote it to their friends and acquaintances, which AllAdvantage enhanced by adding a compensation component, rewarding users for the number of members they successfully referred. In a May 2000 article for "Red Herring" magazine, Steve Jurvetson cited AllAdvantage as a prime example of viral marketing success. [cite web
url = http://www.dfj.com/cgi-bin/artman/publish/steve_may00.shtml
title = What is Viral Marketing?
accessdate = 2006-12-08
last = Jurvetson
first = Steve
date = 2000-05-01
work = Red Herring]

In a recent article, a former AllAdvantage executive also noted that, although the company didn't survive, the behavioral marketing approach pioneered by the company remains an important component of many businesses in the online marketing and advertising space. [cite web
url = http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/06/30/where-are-they-now-alladvantage-com
title = Where are they now: AllAdvantage.com
accessdate = 2008-07-02
last = Cotriss
first = David
date = 2008-06-30
work = The Industry Standard]

pin-off companies

On 20 November 2006, it was reported that several AllAdvantage founders were reincarnating the business as a new (now defunct [cite web | url = http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/10/agloco-doesnt-pay-to-surf-joins-deadpool/ | title = AGLOCO Doesn't Pay to Surf, Joins Deadpool | accessdate = 2008-03-06] ) company, AGLOCO (which stands for "A Global Community"). [cite web | url = http://venturebeat.com/2006/11/20/agloco-luanches-wants-to-pay-you-to-surf-the-internet/ | title = AGLOCO launches — will pay you to surf the Web | accessdate = 2007-04-16]

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.alladvantage.com AllAdvantage Website] (archive.org)
* [http://www.veoh.com/videoDetails.html?v=e94804yCA8ZTKk AllAdvantage Promotional Video]
* [http://www.everett.org/b20-aadv.pdf "Ad It Up" Profile of AllAdvantage (Business 2.0)]
* [http://www.sonic.net/~undoc/alladv.txt "AllAdvantage: A Front-End to DoubleClick" by Andrew Schulman (July 2000)]
* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0979223504 "The $2 Million Cough" by Greg Hoffman, 2007, 279 pages]