Capital18 funded WebChutney has roped in Rammohan Sundaram and seven Yahoo employees to launch separate ad network company called Networkplay. GoSindbad and DivaNation, two vertical ad networks which were incubated at Goosefish Media Ventures, are now a part of Networkplay, which will launch other verticals in the first quarter of 2009, including Business, Technology, News, Shopping, Social Media and Entertainment. We'd written about most of these verticals in June, but Goosefish had subsequently denied looking beyond Travel and Women focused networks. Goosefish Media Ventures is a 100 percent owned subsidiary of Webchutney. As per the release, GoSindbad has been something of a success - with around over 15 advertisers including HP, AMD, Volkswagon, Hyundai. What's the difference between an ad network with multiple vertical channels, and a company with multiple vertical ad networks? Independence of Ad Networks This notion of the independence of ad networks has been a subject some debate - if they're placing the inventory for their advertiser clients, should agencies launch their own networks? Having Webchutney working with brands like HP must help - much like in case of the Quasar-Tyroo and Interactive Avenues-AdMagnet combines. Networks will use the agency affiliation, and its advertiser clients to get publishers on board. But what happens If every agency launches its own network? The networks usually pitch the advertisers that the agency has, to the publisher. But what if publishers themselves launch networks? This might not be very easy for the Webchutney group to pull off, because in some instances…
