Month: September 2019

Himalaya Media May Have Misrepresented its Venture Funding

~ jen

Himalaya Media is a platform for podcasters to create podcasts, connect, and share content with their fans. It appears that the company may have misrepresented the amount of money it received in venture capital funding.

In February of this year, Himalaya Media set out a press release that is still viewable on PodNews, but may have been taken down from other sources. Part of that press release said:

The San Francisco based startup has raised $100M from General Atlantic, SIG and Ximalaya FM and will use this to support the tech innovation, marketing, and content production and acquisition that are driving this launch.

Axios recently reported that Himalaya Media “…didn’t really have that much money in hand, nor were all the stated investors actually on board.”

Axios stated that General Atlantic never invested in Himalaya Media (according to a General Atlantic spokesperson). Instead, General Atlantic had previously invested an undisclosed amount in Ximalaya FM, which is an established Chinese podcasting platform. In its original press release, Himalaya Media listed Ximalaya FM among the companies it received VC funding from.

Interestingly, as Axios noted, Peter Vincer, Himalaya’s original head of partnerships and marketing said that Ximalaya FM is Himalaya Media’s majority owner. This was not mentioned in the press release that Himalaya sent out in February.

Axios was able to speak with Himalaya CEO Yu Wang who said the he removed the press release because “some of the language… was a little bit confusing”. Yu Wang also told Axios that the $100 million was a three-year commitment which mostly came from Ximalaya FM, and that Himalaya Media had only received around $10 million.

This is a mess! I’m not actually surprised by the obfuscation that it appears Himalaya Media has engaged in, though. Himalaya asks podcasters to “claim your show”, which is never a good sign.

It means that Himalaya Media has gone ahead and put a bunch of podcasts onto its platform without asking for permission from the creators of those podcasts. Put all of this together, and it makes me very hesitant to trust Himalaya Media.

Podtrac Announced it is IAB Compliant

~ jen

Podtrac announced that the IAB Tech Lab officially verified Podtrac’s podcast measurement system as compliant with the IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines Version 2.0.

Podtrac provides the industry with the first podcast audience counts through a redirect that are verified as compliant with the Version 2.0 guidelines across any podcast publisher to easily access verified counts for their podcast.

Podtrac’s Version 2.0 guidelines-compliant analytics apply to all podcast download and unique monthly audience counts provided by Podtrac to publishers in their Podtrac Measurement Dashboard and to the industry at large via Podtrac’s Industry Rankings, which provides a ranking of podcasts across all podcast listening sources by unique US monthly audience.

The IAB Podcast Working Group, comprised of more than 40 member companies, including podcast publishers and hosting companies, developed the IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines Version 1.0 published in 2016 and Version 2.0 guidelines published in 2017. The IAB Tech Lab’s Podcast Measurement Compliance Program is an opt-in initiative, and includes a rigorous audit of systems and technologies used to produce counts consistent with the guidelines.

Since 2005, Podtrac has proactively updated its analysis algorithms based on changes to podcast download behaviors and technologies. Podtrac measures over a billion downloads a month across tens of thousands of podcasts including the most popular publishers and podcasts.

Libsyn is IAB V2 Certified

~ jen

Liberated Syndication (Libsyn) announced that the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab has officially certified the Libsyn podcast statistic metrics.

The IAB Tech Lab Compliance Program ensures adherence and compliance with the IAB Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines V2 for reporting podcast downloads, impressions, and listeners. These guidelines establish a common set of metrics for podcast measurement and a base set of principals for the industry to adhere to.

Podcast advertising has faced challenges due to a lack of uniformity in measurement systems and metrics. Meaningful industry-wide measurement has been difficult to achieve due to an inability to connect, track, and analyze user requests; measurement processes that use dissimilar, proprietary algorithms; and a lack of agreed-upon set of metrics and their definitions. With the Podcast Measurement Compliance Program, the IAB Tech Lab seeks to ensure these common challenges are addressed.

“While we had updated our statistical analytics in late 2017 to best match up with these guidelines, we felt it was important to be officially certified as compliant with the IAB V2 guidelines,” said Rob Walch, VP of Podcaster Relations. “As we enter the 2020 yearly advertising buying season, this official certification will give advertisers the reassurance and confidence in our numbers that they need to place orders with Libsyn hosted podcasts.”