Small websites – The new growing breed

‘More than 80% of online publishers in India have less than 0.1% page-views of what the largest Indian publisher has’, this fact is alarming enough for even a not so internet savvy person to understand where the market is headed to. The 80|20 Pareto Principle is here to stay for sure, if not grow bigger. A true indicator of the growing Internet exposure is the Web 2.0 culture and the growing number of small publishers in India. From a recent research report that we carried out, Small publishers are growing by the day, and it’s getting localized to the extent that more than 50% of the publishers deliver less than 1000 impressions a month. This is just a drop in the more than billion impression ocean that the largest Indian publishers have.

Primarily consisting of blogs, review sites and regional websites, most of the traffic comes through search for small publishers and ad-networks are the most preferred intermediary for inventory monetization. This can be attributed to the lack of brand value of these small publishers, and advertiser’s reluctance to go to each and every small publisher. That is where ad-networks cash in with their accumulated inventory. So, while ad-networks seem to be the only choice available to these small publishers, they are also preferred because:

• Ad-relevancy is highest from ad-networks.
• The danger of inventory being unsold is minimal, and hence the opportunity loss.
• Ad-networks are mostly self-serve models, and hence high transparency.
• Click frauds are well taken care of.
• Ad-networks have competitive filters, to manage competition.

For any industry, the feedback and the ideas have to come from both the client as well as the seller. This is where the synergies lock and hence business grows. With ad-networks depending on small publishers to build inventory and small publishers depending on ad-networks to sell inventory, there is a cooperation of sorts, and hence, we get this fast booming small publisher revolution in India.

The key reasons for this fast booming revolution could be bulleted as follows-

Complete transparency through the automated self-serve models.
Relevant and well targeted ads.
Excellent click fraud detection and reporting mechanisms Opens up the small publishers to big spending advertisers who otherwise advertise only on tier-I sites.
Ensures inventory is sold in absence of sales teams.

However, the situation is not all rosy as good as it seems. A careful situational analysis of the small publisher-ad-network industry would suggest that this partnership is still in its infancy and will take time before it grows to become a potent force as it’s in USA and other developed markets where SMEs are an integral part of the ad-market.


If we do an EIC (Economy-Industry-Company) analysis based on the report, these are extremely positive signs for the economy. Internet has not only reached the masses, rather it has got them involved and the Web 2.0 concept is a definite success today. From an Industry standpoint, the base is ever expanding with innumerable publishers coming in and creating valuable inventory. Ad-networks are the likely beneficiary of this, and this is where Horizontal ad-networks are creating excellent brand-building inventory in the market. From a Company viewpoint, Tyroo stands to be one of the biggest gainer out of this boom, with its inventory accumulation currently beyond 3 Billion impression, and expanding every day, helping the small publishers build that value chain, and creating for advertisers, an unparalleled inventory across genres.