In February 1998, Jeffrey Brewer of Goto.com (later renamed Overture, now part of Yahoo!), a 25-employee startup, presented a proof-of-concept for a pay-per-click search engine at the TED conference in California. This presentation and subsequent events gave birth to the PPC advertising system. The concept of the PPC model is generally considered to be proposed by Idealab and Goto.com founder Bill Gross.
Google began offering search engine advertising in December 1999. It wasn't until October 2000 that the AdWords system was launched, allowing advertisers to create text ads and place them on the Google search engine. However, PPC wasn't introduced until 2002; before that, ads were charged on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis. Overture has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google, alleging that the rival search service exceeds its rights in terms of ad placement tools.
Although GoTo.com launched PPC as early as 1998, Yahoo! did not begin syndicating GoTo.com (later Overture) advertisers until November 2001. Prior to this, Yahoo!'s main source of SERP advertising consisted of contextual IAB ad units (primarily 468x60 display ads). In July 2003, when the syndication contract with Yahoo! expired, Yahoo! announced its intention to acquire Overture for $1.63 billion. Today, companies such as adMarketplace, ValueClick, and concede to offering PPC services as alternatives to AdWords and AdCenter.
Among PPC providers, Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords), Microsoft adCenter, and Yahoo! Search Marketing were once the three major network operators, all of which operated in a bidding model. For example, in 2014, PPC (AdWords) or online advertising contributed about $45 billion to Google's $66 billion annual total revenue. In 2010, Yahoo and Microsoft joined forces to singapore business directory fight Google, and Microsoft's Bing began to become the search engine that Yahoo used to provide search results. Since the two companies joined forces, their PPC platform has been renamed AdCenter. Their united network of third-party websites is called BingAds, and these websites allow AdCenter ads to fill banners and text ads on their websites.