Criteo S.A.
TypeSociété Anonyme
Nasdaq: CRTO
IndustryOnline Advertising
Founded2005 (2005)
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Number of employees
2700 (2017)
Websitecriteo.com

Criteo is an advertising company that provides online display advertisements. The company was founded and is headquartered in Paris, France.[1]

History

Criteo was founded in Paris, France, in 2005 by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, Franck Le Ouay and Romain Niccoli. Criteo spent the first four years focused on[2] R&D, and launched its first product in April 2008. In 2010, Criteo opened an office in Silicon Valley.[3] In 2012, Criteo opened its new headquarters in Paris, France.[4]

On April 7, 2011, Criteo announced that it hired Greg Coleman as president.[5] Previously, Coleman served as president and chief revenue officer of The Huffington Post and executive vice president of global sales for Yahoo!.[6]

In October 2013, the firm completed an initial public offering (IPO), raising US$251 million.[7]

On 1 January 2016, Rudelle became the executive chairman, while Eric Eichmann, who was the president and chief operating officer (COO), was promoted to chief executive officer.[8] In June 2016, Criteo alleged Steelhouse, a rival ad tech company, that the latter had falsely taken credit for user visits to retailers' web pages in a lawsuit.[9] Steelhouse countersued, alleging Criteo of false advertising and unfair competition.[10] After an injunction requested by Criteo was denied in October 2016, both parties chose to mutually dropped their lawsuits in November 2016.[9] On 4 October 2016, Criteo acquired HookLogic, a retail exchange, ad server and attribution company focused squarely on retailers, strengthening its ecommerce serving capabilities.[11]

In October 2017, Criteo appointed Mollie Spilman as COO.[12]

With the implementation of the Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) feature from Apple's Safari 11 onwards in September 2017,[13] Criteo's revenue was reduced by $25 million in 2017.[14] However, Criteo reportedly was working on a “sustainable solution for the long-term” at the end of 2017, and had redesigned its "platform architecture" since.[15] Criteo was also impacted by the perception that the General Data Protection Regulation would negatively affect the company.[16]

In April 2018, Rudelle returned as the CEO, with Eichmann being his advisor.[17] Under Rudelle, Criteo slowly transitioned from a single product (web advertising) to a multi-product platform, which included in-app and email advertising.[15][18] Criteo's revenue did not grow in 2018, and was down 1%.[19]

On 19 October 2019, Megan Clarken was appointed as the new CEO, taking over from Rudelle. Clarken would continue Criteo's transformation plan.[19]

Product

Criteo's product is a form of display advertising, which displays interactive banner advertisements, generated based on the online browsing preferences and behaviour of each customer. The solution operates on a pay per click/cost per click (CPC) basis.

In September 2010, Criteo debuted its self-service cost-per-click (CPC) bidding platform that lets advertisers place bids on display retargeting campaigns and see changes and optimize campaigns in real-time.[20] During 2020 Criteo launched a traffic generation product, which allows advertisers to advertise using purchase intent data, and it also introduced a self-service ad platform for its Criteo Retail Media division that allows advertisers to purchase media space on retailers’ websites.[21][22]

Funding

Criteo secured a total of $17 million in funding, with €3 million in a first institutional round in March 2006 coming from French private equity firm AGF and Elaia Partners, and €9 million in a second round in January 2008 led by Index Ventures.[23]

In May 2010, Criteo raised a further $7 million of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners,.[24]

Privacy

In September 2010, Criteo began a campaign[25] regarding the use of popular retargeting and its impact on consumer privacy. The campaign aimed to reassure consumers about personalized retargeting and data-driven marketing tactics.

The company denies it relies on personally identifiable information (PII) and doesn't track identifiable information, no data is shared with advertisers or publishers and no third-party data is used for targeting purposes. Retargeting only uses anonymous information from the merchant's site.[25]

In 2019, Privacy International filed a complaint against Criteo, citing that it wouldn't respect the European GDPR.[26] Complaints by NOYB were also made.[27] In June 2023, the French data protection authority National Commission on Informatics and Liberty pronounced a sanction of 40 million euros against Criteo, notably for failing to check that the people whose data it processes have given their consent.[28]

See also

References

  1. "Criteo Labs: Opening Ceremony". Criteo Website. Criteo. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  2. "Criteo brings its personalized banner ads to US, launches new pricing program - VentureBeat - News - by Nadia Majid". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  3. "French Retargeting Company Descends on Silicon Valley". ClickZ. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  4. "CriteoLabs: Opening Ceremony". Criteo Website. Criteo. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  5. "Online Ad Exec Greg Coleman Lands at Criteo as President - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD". AllThingsD. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  6. "Why Greg Coleman Bet on Retargeting". April 7, 2011.
  7. "Ad tech company Criteo raises $251 million by pricing upsized IPO at $31, above its upwardly revised $27-$29 range". NASDAQ. 29 Oct 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  8. "Criteo Founder JB Rudelle Becomes Executive Chairman, Eric Eichmann Promoted to CEO". Criteo. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  9. 1 2 O'Reilly, Lara. "The nasty 'click fraud' legal dispute between ad tech companies Criteo and SteelHouse is over". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  10. "What Marketers Can Learn From The Cautionary Tale Of Criteo Vs. SteelHouse". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  11. Liyakasa, Kelly (2016-10-04). "Criteo To Acquire HookLogic For $250M In Push For Full Commerce Stack". AdExchanger. Archived from the original on 2016-11-08. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  12. Betz, SA Editor Brandy (2017-10-18). "Criteo announces new COO". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 2017-11-16. {{cite news}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  13. "macOS High Sierra: How to turn off website tracking in Safari 11". Macworld. 2017-11-04. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  14. "What Apple's ITP cookie-blocker did next | WARC". origin.warc.com. Archived from the original on 2022-10-10. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  15. 1 2 "Despite Apple's game-changing ITP update, Criteo's revenues have dipped just 1% year-on-year". The Drum. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  16. Andrew Birmingham (2018-04-25). "Updated: Criteo CEO out, founder returns". Which-50. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  17. "Criteo founder JB Rudelle back at helm in chief executive swap-out". The Drum. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  18. "Why Criteo S.A. Dropped Today". Motley Fool. 2018-08-02. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  19. 1 2 Hercher, James (2019-10-30). "Criteo Names Megan Clarken As New CEO To Lead A Turnaround Effort". AdExchanger. Archived from the original on 2020-08-12. Retrieved 2020-12-14.
  20. "MediaPost Publications Criteo Brings AdWords-Like CPC Bidding to Display Retargeting 09/21/2010". Archived from the original on 2010-11-17. Retrieved 2010-11-15.
  21. "Criteo Introduces New Marketing Solution for Traffic Generation and Increasing Customer Engagement". MarTech Advisor. Archived from the original on 2021-06-13. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  22. "Criteo Launches Self-Serve Retail Media Platform". Weissbrot, Alison-AdExchanger. 27 May 2020.
  23. "Criteo Raises $10 Million From Index Ventures". TechCrunch. AOL. 15 January 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  24. "Here Comes The French Invasion: Bessemer Puts $7 Million Into Ad Retargeting Startup Criteo". TechCrunch. AOL. 6 May 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  25. 1 2 "Criteo CEO Rudelle Responds To Recent Concerns Over Retargeting And Consumer Privacy". AdExchanger: News and Views on Data-Driven Digital Advertising. 14 September 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
  26. "Our complaints against Acxiom, Criteo, Equifax, Experian, Oracle, Quantcast, Tapad". Privacy International.
  27. "Criteo Faces €60m Fine for GDPR Violations in France". Lexology. 2022-08-19. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  28. "Délibération de la formation restreinte n°SAN-2023-009 du 15 juin 2023 concernant la société CRITEO". www.legifrance.gouv.fr. 2023-06-22. Retrieved 2023-06-22.

Further reading

  • Rudelle, J.B. (2016). They Told Me It Was Impossible: The Manifesto of the Founder of Criteo. Morrisville, North Carolina: Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1-4834-5777-2.
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