Criteo S.A. is an advertising company that provides online display advertisements. The company was founded and is headquartered in Paris, France.[1]
History
Criteo was founded in Paris, France, in 2005 by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, Franck Le Ouay and Romain Niccoli. Criteo spent the first four years focused on[2] R&D, and launched its first product in April 2008. In 2010, Criteo opened an office in Silicon Valley.[3] In 2012, Criteo opened its new headquarters in Paris, France.[4]
On April 7, 2011, Criteo announced that it hired Greg Coleman as president.[5] Previously, Coleman served as president and chief revenue officer of The Huffington Post and executive vice president of global sales for Yahoo!.[6]
In October 2013, the firm completed an initial public offering (IPO), raising US$251 million.[7]
On 1 January 2016, Rudelle became the executive chairman, while Eric Eichmann, who was the president and chief operating officer (COO), was promoted to chief executive officer.[8] In June 2016, Criteo alleged Steelhouse, a rival ad tech company, that the latter had falsely taken credit for user visits to retailers' web pages in a lawsuit.[9] Steelhouse countersued, alleging Criteo of false advertising and unfair competition.[10] After an injunction requested by Criteo was denied in October 2016, both parties chose to mutually dropped their lawsuits in November 2016.[9] On 4 October 2016, Criteo acquired HookLogic, a retail exchange, ad server and attribution company focused squarely on retailers, strengthening its ecommerce serving capabilities.[11]
In October 2017, Criteo appointed Mollie Spilman as COO.[12]
With the implementation of the Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) feature from Apple's Safari 11 onwards in September 2017,[13] Criteo's revenue was reduced by $25 million in 2017.[14] However, Criteo reportedly was working on a “sustainable solution for the long-term” at the end of 2017, and had redesigned its "platform architecture" since.[15] Criteo was also impacted by the perception that the General Data Protection Regulation would negatively affect the company.[16]
In April 2018, Rudelle returned as the CEO, with Eichmann being his advisor.[17] Under Rudelle, Criteo slowly transitioned from a single product (web advertising) to a multi-product platform, which included in-app and email advertising.[15][18] Criteo's revenue did not grow in 2018, and was down 1%.[19]
On 19 October 2019, Megan Clarken was appointed as the new CEO, taking over from Rudelle. Clarken would continue Criteo's transformation plan.[19]
In September 2010, Criteo debuted its self-service cost-per-click (CPC) bidding platform that lets advertisers place bids on display retargeting campaigns and see changes and optimize campaigns in real-time.[20] During 2020 Criteo launched a traffic generation product, which allows advertisers to advertise using purchase intent data, and it also introduced a self-service ad platform for its Criteo Retail Media division that allows advertisers to purchase media space on retailers’ websites.[21][22]
Funding
Criteo secured a total of $17 million in funding, with €3 million in a first institutional round in March 2006 coming from French private equity firm AGF and Elaia Partners, and €9 million in a second round in January 2008 led by Index Ventures.[23]
In September 2010, Criteo began a campaign[25] regarding the use of popular retargeting and its impact on consumer privacy. The campaign aimed to reassure consumers about personalized retargeting and data-driven marketing tactics.
The company denies it relies on personally identifiable information (PII) and doesn't track identifiable information, no data is shared with advertisers or publishers and no third-party data is used for targeting purposes. Retargeting only uses anonymous information from the merchant's site.[25]
In 2019, Privacy International filed a complaint against Criteo, citing that it wouldn't respect the European GDPR.[26] Complaints by NOYB were also made.[27] In June 2023, the French data protection authority National Commission on Informatics and Liberty pronounced a sanction of 40 million euros against Criteo, notably for failing to check that the people whose data it processes have given their consent.[28]
Rudelle, J.B. (2016). They Told Me It Was Impossible: The Manifesto of the Founder of Criteo. Morrisville, North Carolina: Lulu Press. ISBN978-1-4834-5777-2.
