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Overture Services this week expanded its existing global relationship with Microsoft's MSN Internet service, inking a commercial search distribution deal with MSN Korea.
Will Over Korea's listings add value to what is already there?
Short answer: Yes. That's the fundamental basis of the entire PPC business model, no?
How much value it will add value depends on your personal opinions and whether you are a user, advertiser or affiliate. And whether OV Korea will deliver that value effectively is a questions for soothsayers and pundits.
They may have (anecdotal mode on) a more substantial user base among Korean Americans - both US and Korea resident.
Perhaps of more significance is the search pane on Korean Internet Explorer. This is used a lot more and is also part of the Overture agreement for Korea but only until December this year.
edit ... sorry Grendel, hadn't seen your answer before posting this.
They may have (anecdotal mode on) a more substantial user base among Korean Americans - both US and Korea resident.
not from my experience. ;)
also few ppl use the search bar (at least significantly interesting degree).
don't know what you mean by "it part of the OV agreement" though. MS agreed to have OV results appear from searches in the MSN search bar until December? <confused>
The MSN Overture annoucement stated that the agreement covered MSN search results for 2 years and IE search pane until December 2003.
I agree that the IE Pane isn't much used most places in the world but understood it to be more widely used in Korea - are there any figures available for this?
The agreement covers the "MSN" Search Pane until December 2003 and the MSN Korea site until December 2004. What is the difference?
The agreement covers the "MSN" Search Pane until December 2003 and the MSN Korea site until December 2004. What is the difference?
one year. (lol...sorry couldn't resist.)
Actually, I have no idea. And I just tried browsing through the site to see if there were any obvious difference. No luck. Maybe they misprinted it and it IS the IE pane?
However, I do know:
1. MSN search is slow as molasses and
2. I can't find an OV sponsored listing for the life of me....on the SERP or anywhere on the site (using keywords that I know are OV Korea advertisers).
sooo....umm....that's not a very effect sponsored link...if it doesnt' actually appear. Or is that just me? :P
The MSN and Overture agreement elsewhere is a bit different to those with the other Over partners. The words of the original announcement said results for “selected” queries would appear. Most of mine didn’t appear in the US and still don’t as there’s some kind of $$ filter. The UK however is different and I was hoping Korea would follow their policy but it doesn’t look too promising right now as the “Viagra” search term already shows an Overture Hangul ad on MSN Korea ;-(
weird too...I was at the OV KO launch seminar...according to them the official launch was last week or so, but they have had their "doors open" for business since April 1. No biggy, just thought it was curiousity.
again, I'll give a better report of the seminar later...but it was really interesting. OV's got waaayyy too much money for their own good. lol.
The MSN deal with Overture is different in that only "selected" terms are involved. It has been assumed in the past that the selection criteria used by MSN was money based using some mix of potential volume and CPC. This has varied by country with the US seeming to have the toughest thresholds and the UK being much more lenient. There is nothing published on the criteria, it's just a case of having to wait and see if an ad with OT shows up on MSN. It looks like MSN Korea's standards will be more like the US.
Well not only is that LLLLAAAMMEEE, but why? It doesnt' cost MSN anything extra to serve a couple extra links....why even bother to cut off any revenue stream. I would think it cost more to build that kind of filtering system than to just let the links show up. I know there is no filtering on zingu.com results on their affiliate sites.
Each to his own I guess. thanks for the info! :D
(off topic, but I noticed Google Adword sponsored links on Google Korea....yet I can't find anywhere to sign up. Was there any announcement of Google ROK's ppc launch? Or is something else going on.)
It has been assumed in the past that the selection criteria used by MSN was money based using some mix of potential volume and CPC.
I am really perplexed as to why certain paid-for top spot OV listing DON'T actually appear in their affiliate results. I seems its been pondered before... but I happened to come across the issue again when looking at some Korean PPC (Zingu and Ov Korea) listing results.
Is this an MSN decision or an OV one?
I can't see any reason why MSN would want to NOT display a paid-for list based on a supposedly relavant keyword (or why OV wouldn't want to serve it). And frankly, wouldn't this just piss off confused OV advertisers who are expecting to see there listing at these sites? I mean, isn't that kinda "false advertising"? ESPECIALLY in a new market unfamiliar with PPC...this seem like shooting yourself in the foot.
I am screaming at the wind, aren't I? lol =P
now someone splice me up an answer! freakin OV is pissin me off with the non-appearing sponsored links. lol.
=P
