OpenX Archive

Good morning – here are some updates from various startups across the world:

• Basecamp project reporting on the iPhone – 37signals
• Glue suggestions launch – AdaptiveBlue
• Echo commenting goes live on first site – JS-Kit
• Freshbooks wins Pick20 Canada aware – Freshbooks
• Using OpenX to manage ads on Facebook apps – OpenX
• Digsby hits 1 million users – Digsby
• Sobees adds group management and auto-complete – Sobees
• Looking at agile development – Huddle

Ad management application server OpenX has announced a new Series C round of funding in the amount of $10 million. The total amount that OpenX has raised is $30.8 million to-date. OpenX notes that the funding will be used, “to further expand its market-leading advertising technology products and services and to rapidly accelerate the growth of the recently launched OpenX Market, the company’s unique new monetization platform.”

DAG Ventures led the new Series C round and existing investors Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Mangrove Capital, First Round Capital and Jonathan Miller, the company’s board chairman, all participated.

For the OpenX hosted program, the company reports growth of 500% to 7.5 billion monthly impressions. They also note that 10,000 web publishers are using the hosted program.

Interestingly, OpenX shares some bits about their revenue model which is broken up into four parts:

• professional services for publishers
• premium support packages
• premium Hosted packages
• OpenX Market

Ad management application server OpenX has announced that, based on the results of a survey, they have launched a variety of paid services. The services are targeted at Web publishers and include: requirements review, installation services, testing, training and support.

OpenX offers self-hosted and a hosted (SaaS) models. Pricing information for the services is provided on a company-by-company basis. I’d like to see a basic suite of services with pricing listed – similar to what vBulletin offers for forum hosting.

I’ve used OpenX and Google Ad Manager and while both tools are on the complicated side, I find Google Ad Manager a bit easier to use overall. And with Google Ad Manager, there are no server or installation costs as it’s free. The downside is that you are providing more data to Google for their use.

TechcrunchUK’s Mike Butcher sent over a tip about yet another name change for the ad server formerly known as phpAdsNew. What was known as OpenAds, you know the one who just grabbed $15.5 million in funding, is now OpenX.

OpenX explains the name change as, "We needed to create a name for our company that has not just one dimension (it is an appropriate name for an open source ad server), but many dimensions (e.g. will extend to other products as well). Changing a name is a very difficult decision, and we did not take this task lightly. We spent months choosing a name. Mel and I finally came to a decision with OpenX, and we stand behind it. I can promise you that this is the last time."

Butcher has an overview of the name changes, "phpAds, phpAdsNew, phpPgAds, Max Media Manager, OpenAds, and finally OpenX" As Butcher notes, this is an issue for the brand and I agree with him. I actually miss phpAdsNew and am disappointed that I upgraded to OpenAds as the system is complete overkill. Perhaps there is a startup opportunity there – a simple ad server because OpenAds is anything but simple. And this comes after 12+ years working with the largest (and most expensive) ad servers.

While OpenX is saying they won’t change their name again, we want your opinion. Leave your thoughts in the comments or vote in the poll below.