• by August 17, 2001

The addition of two European companies to L90's adMonitor client list comes at a time of industry constriction, which prompts Mike Leo, L90's president of technology solutions, to say, "It's a great position to be in."

According to Leo, there are only two major players left in the ad serving and tracking business in Europe, L90 and Doubleclick.

Earlier this week, 24/7 Media announced it was suspending funding from its European operation, 24/7 Media Europe. Leo notes that Adforce and Engage Technologies have also left the business.

"A year ago there were many more players in the space, but now there are no other big ones left throughout the world," he says.

Except for the two major American companies that continue to pursue business there. Leo says Europe is a good place to operate because it hasn't been hurt from this year's downturn.

"Media dollars have been severly cut in the U.S., but Europe hasn't been hit as hard," he says. "It's been hit but nowhere near the severity of the U.S. Internet online ad spending is much sounder in Europe."

Consequently, L90 generates "a good chunk of its revenue" from Europe and "we focus a lot of energy on it," Leo says.

The two new clients, who will use ad Monitor but won't rely on L90 to sell advertising, are Peoplesound.com and e-Space. Both are British. Peoplesound is a music site that allows users to select tracks and download them in a MP3 format and buy CDs.

Its ad clients include Sony Music, BMG, Universal and EMI as well as a host of independent labels. E-Space develops online content for major clients including Reuters and leading retailers Tesco and WHSmith.