Immerce: A new "auction" company (aka BannerSwap)

From: Mark J. Welch [Adbility] <MarkWelch_at_adbility.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 21:44:31 -0600 (CST)

Earlier today (Wednesday, February 10), I received an email
from BannerSwap announcing a new service called Immerce, but
their web site did not respond (there were scripting and/or
database errors generated by all page requests).

Later this morning, the www.immerce.com web site became
active and accessible. But please don't waste your time
there: I just did, and I'm rather annoyed.

Immerce claims to be an auction facility for online
advertising, as well as a directory of web sites seeking
advertising. They seem to be trying to fit somewhere into
the mix between the services offered by AdBot, AdKnowledge,
FlyCast, Narrowline, and AdAuction.

To its credit, the Immerce site has a very professional
surface appearance, similar in some ways to Narrowline. But
it's not a very deep site.

Unfortunately, the registration forms still do not work.
When I tried to register as a seller, I painfully entered
data into three separate pages, only to have the final
submission rejected due to a scripting or database error.
When I registered as a buyer, after entering all my data, I
found that by clicking to read the "agreement" my browser
window was modified to prevent me from doing anything (I had
to exit Netscape and reload, and start over -- I was later
able to register as a buyer by ignoring the agreement link).

Clearly, this company is at an "alpha test" stage,
pretending that it is ready for prime time. The information
gathered from sellers is inadequate for any buyer to ever
use in evaluating sites, and indeed the seller's
registration form never even asked for any rate card
information. Banner sizes are entered into a single text
field, rather than using database entries to identify
precise sizes according to IAB/CASIE sizes. I suspect that
this whole site was designed very quickly, based on a flash
of inspiration and without any real understanding of the
advertising industry.

In addition, the company's telephone number (found only in
the Internic registration, not at the site) is a home phone
number, and Gwen Lopez, who answers the phone, admits to
being the company's accountant but is not very familiar with
the business. Eventually, I was able to leave a message and
got a return call from Noel Lopez, who indicated that he
expects the service to be operating within a week or two.

Mr. Lopez indicated that the company plans to conduct online
auctions for advertising space, then collect pre-payment for
the advertising, and only pay sites after ads are delivered.
 But the company will not actually provide ad serving or
auditing services. He admitted that the company's staff has
absolutely no experience in the advertising industry, other
than their operation of the BannerSwap service. Given the
industry's past bitter experience with AdBot, and the awful
experience of this same company's BannerSwap service, I am
skeptical that any legitimate advertiser or seller (web
publisher) would trust this company.

Note that BannerSwap even today was serving broken-picture
icons instead of ads, and has historically had huge problems
with fraudulent site activity and technical incapacities.
Some months ago, I remember laughing hysterically at the
company's efforts to sell its BannerSwap service, and I am
relieved to see that no one bought this failed venture.

Remember the basic rules: before you do business with
someone, ask who you are doing business with. Where is the
company located? (This company's internic registrations uses
two [apparent home] addresses in Milpitas and Fremont,
California.) Who are you doing business with? (Various
company names are used including WPI Inc and Immerce LLC.)
Who are the principals? (Apparently Ricardo Lopez, Emmanuel
"Noel" Lopez, and Gwen Lopez, according to the Internic
registration). What is this vendor's or its principals'
past experience in the industry? (None, other than operating
the highly unstable and erratic BannerSwap banner exchange
service, which even today is serving "broken picture" icons
instead of exchange banners.)

Don't waste your time on this one, folks.


-- Mark J. Welch [Adbility's Web Publishers' Advertising Guide]
-- http://www.Adbility.com/WPAG/
-- Ad rates: http://www.Adbility.com/WPAG/baf_spon.htm
-- (925) 462-8483 voice - Pleasanton, California


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Received on Sun Feb 14 1999 - 22:04:37 CST