Yes, the ad network as we commonly know it has/will go away. While I agree that many have morphed and evolved (into a DSP if they had the technology), there are still many players that serve market needs and niches and will sustain what we know as an ad network. True ad networks buy blocks of media and optimize the heck out of it. Fake ad networks (and agency trading desks to a large extent) can’t and do not do this. The simple idea of buying chunks of good inventory before it hits the exchanges will give the true ad network a leg up over DSPs and trading desks because they’ll have access to simply better inventory. Second point here is that the largest part of the market is not the large agencies or advertisers – there is a significant middle and tail to the buy side that can not afford the big trading desk or know how to leverage a DSP model – these guys will enable the true ad network to stick around.

I think these are some points many of us tend to overlook and forget, as it’s easy to only see how the market will meet the needs of the customers we serve.