InterActiveCorp (IAC), the owner of Ask.com, Citysearch and Match, has reported a 43 per cent rise in internet advertising revenue, fuelled by growth in search queries and revenue per query.Overall results for the group were hit by the poor performance of television shopping network HSN and online lender LendingTree, where operating profit fell 98.9 per cent.
"Most of our businesses had good news to report, but the bad news is HSN and Lending Tree are performing poorly," said Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp. "I expect to see more of the same this quarter."
Media and advertising results, which include IAC Search & Media, Citysearch and Evite, showed a total revenue of $168.1 million - up from $117.6 million in the first quarter of 2006.
IAC Search & Media consists of properties such as Ask.com, Ask.com UK and Fun Web Products, and network properties, which include syndicated advertising, search results, and toolbars. Here traffic from network offerings drove 45 per cent of search and media revenue, up from 36 per cent in the first quarter of 2006.
Traffic from Ask.com and other proprietary businesses drove 55 per cent of search and media revenue, down from 64 per cent in the first quarter of last year.
The company said that online network revenue growth was up largely due to an increase in syndicated sponsored listings.
IAC recently launched Ask Sponsored Listings as a rival Google's AdSense network.
Ask Sponsored Listings offers advertisers the opportunity to place their adverts beside search results from Ask.com.
Advertisers are charged on a cost-per-click basis, which means that they only have to pay Ask when a prospective customer actually clicks on their advertisement.
