• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, February 20, 2013

Denmark publishers Politiken, Jyllands-Posten, and Ekstra Bladet have opened up their online inventory and data to be traded in real-time. The Danish Publisher Network (Dansk Udgivernetværk) will use Rubicon Project's platform for the exchange.

Dansk Udgivernetværk will reach 2.2 users per month, which is about 45% of the population of Denmark. "Agency trading desks are appearing in Denmark, so we knew we needed to work with real-time trading technology in order to access these budgets," stated Martin Jensen, head of Dansk Udgivernetværk. 

Jay Stevens, SVP and GM, International, Rubicon Project Steven spoke of the maturity of RTB as a whole in Europe. He said that one-third of Rubicon's inventory comes from Europe, and said that a "staggering amount of premium inventory [is] becoming available in Europe." Dansk Udgivernetværk is the second European publisher consortium, the first being France's La Place Media co-op. 

The publishers came together to share their data and open up inventory for real-time trading in order to keep up with the likes of Facebook and Google. In some places in Europe, like the Netherlands, Steven says the growth of RTB is "far outpacing" the United States out of necessity. He likened it to Americans still driving Hummers because gas is so much cheaper in the states.

"The concept behind these co-ops is sprouting up in every market around the world," Stevens said. "[It's] somewhat contagious throughout the rest of the markets." 

The co-ops make the inventory more attractive on the buy side when stacked up against Facebook and Google, Stevens said. Additionally, the data component - being able to share data and track users - is a main driving force behind the co-op, according to Stevens.

Stevens said that Rubicon is working with three other countries on similar co-ops to the La Place Media in France and Dansk Udgivernetværk in Denmark, but he couldn't reveal which countries yet.