Ad networks should be scared, very scared. Before they know it, they will be reduced to just being affiliated sales forces for the ad exchanges they “partnered” with. Hell, even today, I cant really tell the difference between some ad networks and ad rep firms. In such a case, maybe some of them deserves to have it revealed that the emperor is really naked. . . just bunch of guys in a suit, peddling snake oil and turning around and passing orders to another ad network while pretending to have some “behavioral targeting” technology. (retargeting based on cookies is so trite)

These days, ad exchanges are dangling 0% commissions to get smaller ad networks to participate. The larger ad networks like Platform A are smart enough to realize they must build optimization and inventory yield management features into their ad network to keep their advertisers AND publishers happy. . . RATHER than relying on an ad exchange to optimize those inventory. Furthermore, ad exchanges are now absorbing more and more of the ad network functionalities like targeting, profiling, segmentation, cookie management and settlement into their core offering. If the “special sauce” for generating ROI for either the advertiser or publishers resides in the exchange rather than the network . . . its only a matter of time before ad network margins come under pressure . .. or worse dis-intermediation.

5 years from now, I look forward to Ad Uber-Exchanges that’s gonna try to aggregate the first generation ad exchanges