Google’s Begun Growing Very Fast
July 25, 2008 |
I have just seen a press release (in Russian) issued by Begun, the Russian contextual advertising company recently acquired by Google from Rambler. The ad company reports on the revenue it has received in the first 6 months of 2008 – and the results really are amazing which proves that Google has made a smart business decision again.
And I am sure everyone will agree that a company that within first 6 months of 2008 achieves profit 25% higher than during the entire 2007 can be proud of its achievements.
Growth seems to be at all points in Begun – not only in the profit but also in engaging publishers and advertisers: the company now has additional 30 thousand publishers and their total number has reached 173 thousand, including major Russian sites Mail.Ru, Afisha, and Rambler itself. In addition, Begun is heavily recruiting new advertising agencies: in the first half of 2008 the number of new agencies accredited by the company already equals to the total last-year's figure. So right now 1245 agencies accredited by Begun work in 103 cities around the world, including London, Beijing, Tel-Aviv, and Warsaw.
The profit achieved is explained not only by the mere number of new advertisers it attracted – advertisers also spend more on contextual ads: an average monthly spending limit is 9% higher now.
In general, contextual advertising market in Russia demonstrates very fast growth rates (in Russian): sales totaled over $200 million in 2007 with the predicted growth rate for 2008 at 70%. So it is obvious that Begun has a great potential for ad sales and generating good revenue for its new owner. Besides, if the growth is further supported by Google (by new advertisers the advertising giant can bring and the high-quality sales practices as well), I believe we will see further reports of amazing revenue.
