As DoubleClick faced a barrage of questions over its privacy policy and fallout over the withdrawal of Kozmo.com from its network, the Australian operation was forced into damage-control mode. Specifically, local MD Rod Bryan outlined that the Sydney base was not “building a database business” and was more interested in securing ad dollars.
Bryan said that the Australian operation was now keeping pace with DoubleClick’s worldwide growth patterns, which has seen the number of banner ads served worldwide increase from 17 billion in September 1999 to some 30 billion by December last year.
Bryan would not be drawn on the Australian operation’s contribution to that total, although he did say that Australian advertisers “are spending more than that”, in reference to the percentage increase in traffic, but once again declined to reveal actual ad dollar figures.
He did say that “the majority” of spending is now going towards Australian Web sites, which defies other data that shows the majority of sites visited by Australians are based overseas, mainly in the U.S. These latest campaigns run by DoubleClick have reversed a previous trend which saw Australian advertisers favouring U.S. sites.