Microsoft is Digg’ing it
Microsoft is Digg’ing it
July 26th, 2007: Microsoft has teamed up with the popular news aggregate site Digg.com in an exclusive three year advertising deal.
The move boosts Microsoft’s plan to increase its online advertising revenue, as the company will be the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on the popular Digg news site.
Digg aggregates news stories from around the Web and allows users to rate stories and recommend them to others with the popular “Digg it” tag. More than 17 million unique users visit the site monthly, according to Digg.
Microsoft said it will work with Digg to develop new campaigns that combine advertising and technology for the site. The deal will also see Microsoft collaborate with Digg’s current advertising partner, Federated Media Publishing, to bring new programs to the site’s users and advertisers.
"We believe advertisers will welcome Microsoft and Digg's combined strengths” said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft.
Microsoft has been slowly building its efforts to become a stronger competitor in the fight for online advertising dollars, waging an uphill battle against market leader Google. Last Tuesday, the company said it had added the ability for subscribers of its Office Live small-business to purchase paid-search advertising from portal Ask.com's s Ask Sponsored Listings.
Partnerships aren't the only way Microsoft is building its advertising initiatives. The company is currently waiting for its US$6 billion purchase of digital advertising agency aQuantive to close, something the company said it expects to happen next month after a vote by aQuantive shareholders.