Last week at AdTech I heard a rumor that delivery service provider Habeas was for sale. Ken Magill confirmed it yesterday.
While I agree with his analysis that the leaders in this space are ReturnPath and Pivotal Veracity and may gain in the short term from rumors about Habeas, it makes me question the size of the overall delivery service provider market.
How many delivery service provider's can the market support? Right now there are only 4 that I can think of - and only Pivotal Veracity is a standalone business. Do you think that over the next few years we'll see consolidation in the DSP space or new competition?
I'd call us stand-alone. Yes, we have other operating units to the company, but Sender Score is the majority of our business, and it's not like we're part of some huge conglomerate.
There's also a handful of other competitors, both here and abroad. Many attack the "low end" of the market, but don't forget about Lyris as well, and Goodmail for that matter. And there are even other related services I'd lump in like Brandmail and Iconix that are at least partial substitutes or competitive with part of our business.
The market is pretty good sized, and it's growing phenomenally fast. It's also, according to Marketing Sherpa, only about 10% penetrated. Look for more growth to come!
Matt Blumberg
CEO, Return Path, Inc.
Posted by: Matt Blumberg | April 23, 2008 at 12:05 PM