UNDERSTANDING THE PLAYERS

Now that we have seen how this all plays out, let’s look at each of the pieces of the puzzle in a little more
detail. From a user-centric viewpoint, the first interaction with the ad tech ecosystem comes at the
publisher site.

A publisher is any business, individual, or organization that prepares and issues or delivers content to an
audience. Publishers may not actually create all the content. Some websites or online magazines, for
example, buy content from elsewhere for publishing.

In many cases, the publisher acts as a host, or medium, for the content, and there are many cases where
advertising is placed around that content.7 Examples of publishers are entities like Gannett and Hearst;
known brands like NBC, CNN, and CBS; and portals such as Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL.

These publishers create their own content or syndicate it from others to present to users coming to their
sites. Social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are examples of publishers where
content is generated by the users who visit these sites. The business model that generates revenue through
the placement of ads is the genesis of the ad tech ecosystem