• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, November 3, 2010

Buy a company overseas for its proven technology and adapt it for other markets worldwide -- a classic global expansion strategy for tech companies, now being used in the online ad industry.

For example, the AudienceScience brought new technology into the U.S. via its acquisition of Germany-based wunderloop. Now called AudienceScience Connect, the technology is a "premier media transaction platform (MTP)" that enables complete "simplification of online media buying and selling," according to the company

Most offerings from demand side platforms (DSPs) or supply side platforms (SSPs) look at the inventory value based on price and remnant inventory, says Jeff Hirsch, AudienceScience CEO. But Connect allows publishers to create a private tool that lets advertisers come in and look around at available inventory.

A few tweaks on the backend infrastructure allowed AudienceScience to overcome bandwidth issues, Hirsch says. An increasingly fragmented and crowded market gave rise to a demand for greater transparency and less complexity. It signals a maturing market, which makes this story all the more interesting.

As the economy becomes stronger, the supply side gains more power. If there's a limited amount of contextual inventory, companies gain pricing power as demand increases. During the past year, the supply side wanted to protect the value of the quality they provide -- and exchange-based systems don't all allow for that, Hirsch says.

Connect has attracted companies in Germany. Take, for example, pilot 1/0, one of Germany's largest independent online agencies. The company has been using the platform as part of its pilot display optimizer platform. Then there's Unister Media, also in Germany, which recently partnered with AudienceScience to tap into the Connect platform. While there's no word directly from the companies, we'll just have to take Hirsch's word on their success.

Hirsch saw that wunderloop's technology worked well for advertisers and publishers and wanted to bring the platform to the U.S. This is not a beta or test environment; it's been working well in Germany for two years. Too many companies talk about technology when the company is still in a development phase, he says.