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Zedo (trademark styled as ZEDO) is a US and India-based advertising technology company that provides several online advertising products and services to Internet publishers, advertisers, and agencies.[1] The company was founded in 1999 by Roy de Souza.
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Online Advertising Technology |
| Founded | September 1999 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA |
Key people | Roy de Souza, Co-Founder/CEO; Paul Prior, President; (the late) Joseph Jacob, CTO; Summer Koide, VP Products and Services; |
| Products | ZINC premium network (for Advertisers), Zedo Ad Server (for Publishers, Advertisers, Networks) Network Optimization (for Publishers) Behavioral Targeting (for Networks) |
| Parent | Discovery, Inc. |
| Website | www |
The company works with publishers that sell space on their web pages to online advertisers. Zedo's servers send advertisements to users' browsers.[2] Zedo uses an HTTP cookie to track users' browsing history resulting in targeted pop-up ads and pop-under ads. The cookie is often flagged by spyware and adware removal programs.[3] In a 2013 case study written by Amazon, Amazon described ZEDO as a company that "develops innovative technology solutions to help publishers sell and deliver Internet ads".[4]
In December 2021, Zedo was acquired by Discovery, Inc.
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Zedo was founded in September 1999 by Roy de Souza. The company is headquartered in the North Beach district of San Francisco, California,[5] and has four research and development centers in Russia and India.[6][7] In 2001, it expanded by offering the ad-serving technology to large websites.
By 2004, the use of filters to limit pop-ups and pop-unders increased, and Zedo began using intromercials—advertisements served before the requested content—as an alternate method.[8]
Zedo has also experimented with creating its own social networking sites. In 2006, the company launched Zebo.com, a social networking site, where users get shopping advice from friends who own products.[9]
In 2011, Zedo began partnering with newspaper publishers.[10]
In October 2011, Zedo spun out its ad exchange platform in India into a separate company called Zinc with headquarters in Mumbai.[11][12]
Acquisition by Discovery
On December 8, 2021, it was announced that Discovery had acquired Zedo, its real-time bidding and supply-side platforms to sell advertising programmatically.[13] Zedo employees joined Discovery as part of the acquisition deal.[14]
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Zedo uses HTTP cookies to track users' browsing and advertisement viewing history.[15] A writer for The Independent called pop-unders from Zedo and other providers "annoying" while also describing the advertisements' windows as a "seemingly endless barrage".[1] Technologist Danny Sullivan has stated that Zedo carries misleading "junk" ads linking to fake news sites.[16]
Zedo offers an option to opt out of targeted advertisements[17] and says that it has an anti-spyware policy.[18]
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