Yahoo scored a new point in the ads-selling competition by announcing today that its UK and Ireland division will sell Bebo's display advertising. Bebo is the number 1 social networking site in UK and Ireland and, according to the data released by comScore Media Metrix in July 2007 it has a monthly audience of 11.6 million users. Bebo, which was founded in 2005, is already considered the third biggest social networking site worldwide.

In the last five years the social networking sites, online places where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users, have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users.

But for Yahoo is the first time when is working with a social networking site. Through this partnership the company will provide to its advertisers substantially improved marketing opportunities, especially in the highly-desirable 13-24 year-old age group. 

"Bebo is the number 1 social network in the UK & Ireland and has become the online destination for the elusive 13-24 year-old demographic. The partnership with Yahoo! enables us to focus on custom sponsorship campaigns and groundbreaking original productions with the knowledge that our display advertising is handled by a partner that guarantees the highest quality ad for each user interaction. Yahoo!'s scale, experienced sales force, advertiser relationships and industry leading online advertising capabilities will allow us to do just that", said Joanna Shields, president, international at

By joining their forces Yahoo and Bebo expect to reach about 75 percent of the United Kingdom's online audience.

Also, as the part of the agreement, Yahoo! Answers will be integrated into Bebo's website, which mans that the users will ask and answer questions directly, without leaving the social networking site.

Another common project is the development of a new Bebo Toolbar, thanks to which the Bebo users will be able to monitor their social network even when they are visiting other websites. All these initiatives will begin starting the last quarter of the year. However, the companies didn’t disclose any details about how the revenues will be split.

"This exclusive partnership is the next step of our ongoing strategy to build the largest and most effective online advertising network. Bebo joins our existing partners, Eurosport and Vodafone as part of that ad network, which also includes the BlueLithium publisher network and advanced targeting tools, and the Right Media ad exchange.” said Toby Coppel, managing director, Yahoo! Europe.  

Lately Yahoo is trying to extend and improve its advertising business. In June Yahoo decided to combine its Search and Display advertising sales teams in the US under the management of David Karnstedt, currently senior vice president of Yahoo's Search sales business.

Earlier this month Yahoo announced the acquisition of the online ad group BlueLithium for almost $300m, a deal bound to be completed by the last quarter of 2007.Ranked the fifth-largest advertising network in the US and being the first in the UK, the three-year BlueLithium has 145 million unique visitors per month, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Yahoo also completed the purchase of Right Media Inc., an online-advertising company in April in change of $680 million, after initially buying a 20 percent stake of the company in October.

With all these acquisitions and the deal signed with Bebo Yahoo is trying to keep with its online rivals, Microsoft and Google. Last year in August Google signed a 900-million-dollar deal to provide search and advertising services for the MySpace social networking site and other online properties owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Shortly after Google announced its deal with MySpace.com, the biggest social networking site, Microsoft announced a similar partnership with Facebook, but the financial terms of the deal - expected to run through mid-2009 - were not disclosed.

Also in July this year Microsoft has managed to sign an advertising deal with Digg.com in which the Redmond giant will become the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on the popular news site. Currently Digg.com has about 17 million monthly visitors and this agreement is very important for Microsoft, who wants to promote its AdCenter initiative.

Also both companies acquired digital marketing firms. Earlier this year Google has announced the acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billions and shortly after Microsoft bought aQuantive for 6 billion dollars in a bid to prevent Google's total domination of the online advertising market.