People Inc. has secured an AI licensing deal with Microsoft, marking a significant development in the media industry. This partnership comes as Google's AI Overviews have been negatively impacting the publisher's traffic, with a notable decline from 54% to 24% in the past quarter. The deal, announced alongside IAC's third-quarter earnings, showcases People Inc.'s strategic approach to content monetization. CEO Neil Vogel highlighted the unique nature of this marketplace, emphasizing a pay-per-use model where AI players compensate publishers for content usage, akin to an 'a la carte' menu. This contrasts with the 'all-you-can-eat' model of their previous agreement with OpenAI. Vogel's criticism of Google's content scraping practices and their use of a single bot for both search and AI features has led to a more assertive stance on content rights and compensation. The company's decision to leverage Cloudflare's technology to block AI crawlers has been pivotal, prompting AI players to seek content deals. This strategy has not only secured revenue but also positioned People Inc. as a leader in the AI content marketplace. IAC's earnings report also noted a 9% growth in digital revenue, with performance marketing and licensing as key drivers. The acquisition of Feedfeed, a food-focused media publisher and influencer network, further strengthens People Inc.'s presence in the digital media landscape. This multi-faceted approach to content monetization and strategic partnerships underscores People Inc.'s commitment to adapting to the evolving media industry while maintaining its core values of content integrity and revenue generation.
