This is a product launch with some BITE (forgive us).
Today, contextual advertising technology company Media.net officially launched Bytes, a new vertical video experience built for the open web. Until now, vertical video has largely been the domain of social platforms like Meta and TikTok — but Bytes aims to bring that same immersive, mobile-first experience to publisher environments.
Here’s what it looks like:
To coincide with the launch, Media.net hosted a panel discussion last night in New York City featuring executives from TIME, People, Hearst, and Trusted Media Brands (TMB) — all of whom are either live with Bytes, scaling it, or in the engineering phase.
According to Steve Florio, Media.net’s SVP of Global Supply Partnerships — who also participated in the panel — the Bytes launch has been a year in the making. “We turned our vast engineering and product team toward something new,” he said. “Vertical video built for the open web.”
Why This Matters:
Here’s a live, out-in-the-wild look at Bytes, from Florio:
Cool! While this seems like a no-brainer given the popularity of social, vertical-first apps, for years, publishers, according to Florio and the panelists, have lacked a true vertical video backbone for the open web. As a result, services like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts have been able to capitalize on changing consumer behavior, while traditional media brands have been left without the infrastructure to compete, forcing much of the engagement and ad spend into walled gardens.
Bytes was made to change that. It gives publishers the tools to deliver high-quality vertical video experiences directly on their own properties. Also, while publishers have been challenged by the rise of AI, Bytes actually uses generative AI to help them turn articles into vertical video experiences that they can choose to monetize.
For advertisers, the value is pretty clear: Bytes opens access to premium, mobile-first inventory in trusted, brand-safe environments. Florio added that the early returns are promising. Across publishers currently using Bytes, he says, Media.net has “already seen a 100-second boost in user session times.”
Experts React:
At the Bytes launch event, enthusiasm for the tech — and for vertical video’s potential beyond social — was high.
People’s Chief Business Officer, Alysia Borsa, said the early results in using Bytes have been strong: “We launched in April… we’ve seen really high engagement — click-through rate, time on site.”
Jonathan Hills, SVP of Product at TMB, said Bytes is helping their brands elevate how they present and surface video. “At TMB and all of our brands, we’re seeing some great initial reactions to the products.”
From TIME, Chief Operating Officer Mark Howard framed the opportunity in broader industry terms. “We have Bytes on the pages now… The open web is under all kinds of pressures… So, the opportunity is to rise to the moment, meet consumers with the way in which they’ve already voted with their time.”
And Hearst’s Rachael Savage, SVP of Ad Revenue Operations, pointed to the growing demand from advertisers for trusted environments. “Advertisers are coming to us for—whether it’s trusted, brand-safe, all of that. That could be ad content. That could be branded content.”
Given the rise of tools like OpenAI’s Sora — and the increasing brand-safety challenges they present across social platforms — the idea of vertical video in a controlled, trusted, publisher environment has clear appeal.
Our Take:
Will Bytes bring some balance back to the force? Possibly. What’s clear is that walled gardens have been “taking” from publishers for years — audiences, content, and ad dollars. Now, the open web finally has a chance to take a page out of their playbook. And vertical video — and the value it brings — feels like a pretty good place to start.
AdTechRadar is owned by Chris Harihar, who leads PR at Mod Op. Media.net is a Mod Op client.
