Phorm back in business... in Brazil

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 26 Mar 2010 at 14:40

Phorm - the controversial behavioural-advertising service - has finally announced a commercial roll-out of its service... in Brazil.

Phorm was forced to beat a hasty retreat in the UK, after its ISP partners TalkTalk and BT shelved their plans for a commercial deployment last summer.

The company's Webwise service, which uses deep-packet inspection to tailor adverts based on the user's surfing habits, ran into a storm of protest from privacy campaigners and even web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who described such services as like "putting a television camera in your room".

Today’s announcement is also indicative of the value that our service can deliver to our partners around the world

After months of inactivity, the company has now announced that it will be working with Brazil's leading ISPs to deploy its new Web Discover service in the country. The firm claims to have $5.6 million of advertising pre-booked for the roll-out.

The announcement has sparked a mini-rebound for Phorm's share price, which plummeted after its prospects of a UK launch collapsed last summer.

"Our commercial deployment in partnership with many of Brazil’s leading internet players reflects the many lessons learnt from experiences in other markets," claims Phorm CEO, Kent Ertugrul.

The ever-bullish Ertugrul claims the Brazilian roll-out will boost Phorm's chances in other parts of the world. "Today’s announcement is also indicative of the value that our service can deliver to our partners around the world," he said.

"Beyond Brazil, we have successfully completed two trials in Korea, about which we will update the market in due course, and we are now active in almost every other major internet market worldwide."