Latest news with #marketplace
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping
Cloudflare, a cloud infrastructure provider that serves 20% of the web, announced Tuesday the launch of a new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between website owners and AI companies — ideally giving publishers greater control over their content. For the last year, Cloudflare has launched tools for publishers to address the rampant rise of AI crawlers, including a one-click solution to block all AI bots, as well as a dashboard to view how AI crawlers are visiting their site. In a 2024 interview, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told TechCrunch these products were laying a foundation for a new type of marketplace in which publishers could distribute their content to AI companies and be compensated for it. Now, Cloudflare is bringing that marketplace to life. It's called Pay per Crawl, and Cloudflare is launching the 'experiment' in private beta on Tuesday. Website owners in the experiment can choose to let AI crawlers, on an individual basis, scrape their site at a set rate — a micropayment for every single 'crawl.' Alternatively, website owners can choose to let AI crawlers scrape their site for free, or block them altogether. Cloudflare claims its tools will let website owners see whether crawlers are scraping their site for AI training data, to appear in AI search responses, or for other purposes. At scale, Cloudflare's marketplace is a big idea that could offer publishers a potential business model for the AI era — and it also places Cloudflare at the center of it all. The launch of the marketplace comes at a time when news publishers are facing existential questions about how to reach readers, as Google Search traffic fades away and AI chatbots rise in popularity. There's not a clear answer for how news publishers will survive in the AI era. Some, such as the New York Times, have filed lawsuits against tech companies for training their AI models on news articles without permission. Meanwhile, other publishers have struck multi-year deals to license their content for AI model training and to have their content appear in AI chatbot responses. Even so, only large publishers have struck AI licensing deals, and it's still unclear whether they provide meaningful sources of revenue. Cloudflare aims to create a more durable system where publishers can set prices on their own terms. The company also announced Tuesday that new websites set up with Cloudflare will now, by default, block all AI crawlers. Site owners will have to grant certain AI crawlers permission to access their site — a change Cloudflare says will give every new domain 'the default of control.' Several large publishers, including Conde Nast, TIME, The Associated Press, The Atlantic, ADWEEK, and Fortune, have signed on with Cloudflare to block AI crawlers by default in support of the company's broader goal of a 'permission-based approach to crawling.' The business model that many of these publishers relied on for decades is slowly becoming unreliable. Historically, online publishers have allowed Google to scrape their sites in return for referrals in Google Search, which translated to traffic to their sites, and ultimately, ad revenue. However, new data from Cloudflare suggests that publishers may be getting a worse deal in the AI era than in the Google Search era. While some websites cite ChatGPT as a major traffic source, that doesn't appear to be the case broadly. This June, Cloudflare says it found that Google's crawler scraped its websites 14 times for every referral it gave them. Meanwhile, OpenAI's crawler scraped websites 17,000 times for every one referral, while Anthropic scraped websites 73,000 times for every referral. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Google are building AI agents that are designed to visit websites on behalf of users, collect information, and deliver it back to users directly. A future in which these tools are mainstream has huge implications for publishers that rely on readers visiting their sites. Cloudflare notes that the 'true potential' of Pay per Crawl may emerge in an 'agentic' future. 'What if an agentic paywall could operate at the network edge, entirely programmatically? Imagine asking your favorite deep research program to help you synthesize the latest cancer research or a legal brief, or just help you find the best restaurant in Soho — and then giving that agent a budget to spend to acquire the best and most relevant content,' Cloudflare said in a blog post. To participate in Cloudflare's experimental marketplace, AI companies and publishers must both be set up with Cloudflare accounts. In their accounts, both parties can set rates at which they'd like to buy and sell a 'crawl' of the publisher's content. Cloudflare acts as the intermediary in these transactions, charging the AI company and distributing the earnings to the publisher. Cloudflare spokesperson Ripley Park tells TechCrunch there are no stablecoins or cryptocurrency involved in Pay per Crawl at this time, even though many have suggested digital currency would be perfect for something like this. Cloudflare's marketplace feels like a bold vision for the future that requires a lot of publishers and AI companies to get on board. Still, there's no guarantee publishers will get a good deal, and convincing AI firms to participate could be tough, given they're currently scraping content for free. Nevertheless, Cloudflare seems like one of the few companies in a position to make a marketplace like this happen.
TechCrunch
2 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping
Cloudflare, a cloud infrastructure provider that serves 20% of the web, announced Tuesday the launch of a new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between website owners and AI companies — ideally giving publishers greater control over their content. For the last year, Cloudflare has launched tools for publishers to address the rampant rise of AI crawlers, including a one-click solution to block all AI bots, as well as a dashboard to view how AI crawlers are visiting their site. In a 2024 interview, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told TechCrunch these products were laying a foundation for a new type of marketplace in which publishers could distribute their content to AI companies and be compensated for it. Now, Cloudflare is bringing that marketplace to life. It's called Pay per Crawl, and Cloudflare is launching the 'experiment' in private beta on Tuesday. Website owners in the experiment can choose to let AI crawlers, on an individual basis, scrape their site at a set rate — a micropayment for every single 'crawl.' Alternatively, website owners can choose to let AI crawlers scrape their site for free, or block them altogether. Cloudflare claims its tools will let website owners see whether crawlers are scraping their site for AI training data, to appear in AI search responses, or for other purposes. Here's what website owners see in Pay per Crawl (Credit: Cloudflare) At scale, Cloudflare's marketplace is a big idea that could offer publishers a potential business model for the AI era — and it also places Cloudflare at the center of it all. The launch of the marketplace comes at a time when news publishers are facing existential questions about how to reach readers, as Google Search traffic fades away and AI chatbots rise in popularity. There's not a clear answer for how news publishers will survive in the AI era. Some, such as the New York Times, have filed lawsuits against tech companies for training their AI models on news articles without permission. Meanwhile, other publishers have struck multi-year deals to license their content for AI model training and to have their content appear in AI chatbot responses. Even so, only large publishers have struck AI licensing deals, and it's still unclear whether they provide meaningful sources of revenue. Cloudflare aims to create a more durable system where publishers can set prices on their own terms. Techcrunch event Save $450 on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW The company also announced Tuesday that new websites set up with Cloudflare will now, by default, block all AI crawlers. Site owners will have to grant certain AI crawlers permission to access their site — a change Cloudflare says will give every new domain 'the default of control.' Several large publishers, including Conde Nast, TIME, The Associated Press, The Atlantic, ADWEEK, and Fortune, have signed on with Cloudflare to block AI crawlers by default in support of the company's broader goal of a 'permission-based approach to crawling.' The business model that many of these publishers relied on for decades is slowly becoming unreliable. Historically, online publishers have allowed Google to scrape their sites in return for referrals in Google Search, which translated to traffic to their sites, and ultimately, ad revenue. However, new data from Cloudflare suggests that publishers may be getting a worse deal in the AI era than in the Google Search era. While some websites cite ChatGPT as a major traffic source, that doesn't appear to be the case broadly. This June, Cloudflare says it found that Google's crawler scraped its websites 14 times for every referral it gave them. Meanwhile, OpenAI's crawler scraped websites 17,000 times for every one referral, while Anthropic scraped websites 73,000 times for every referral. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Google are building AI agents that are designed to visit websites on behalf of users, collect information, and deliver it back to users directly. A future in which these tools are mainstream has huge implications for publishers that rely on readers visiting their sites. Cloudflare notes that the 'true potential' of Pay per Crawl may emerge in an 'agentic' future. 'What if an agentic paywall could operate at the network edge, entirely programmatically? Imagine asking your favorite deep research program to help you synthesize the latest cancer research or a legal brief, or just help you find the best restaurant in Soho — and then giving that agent a budget to spend to acquire the best and most relevant content,' Cloudflare said in a blog post. To participate in Cloudflare's experimental marketplace, AI companies and publishers must both be set up with Cloudflare accounts. In their accounts, both parties can set rates at which they'd like to buy and sell a 'crawl' of the publisher's content. Cloudflare acts as the intermediary in these transactions, charging the AI company and distributing the earnings to the publisher. Cloudflare spokesperson Ripley Park tells TechCrunch there are no stablecoins or cryptocurrency involved in Pay per Crawl at this time, even though many have suggested digital currency would be perfect for something like this. Cloudflare's marketplace feels like a bold vision for the future that requires a lot of publishers and AI companies to get on board. Still, there's no guarantee publishers will get a good deal, and convincing AI firms to participate could be tough, given they're currently scraping content for free. Nevertheless, Cloudflare seems like one of the few companies in a position to make a marketplace like this happen.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The 5 Most Interesting Analyst Questions From CarGurus's Q1 Earnings Call
CarGurus' first quarter results drew a positive market reaction, driven by the company's ongoing momentum in its core marketplace business and expanded operating margins. Management attributed the quarter's performance to strong dealer adoption, increased subscription tier upgrades, and robust growth in value-added products and OEM advertising. CEO Jason Trevisan emphasized that marketplace revenue rose due to 'dealer count growth, subscription tier upgrades, increased adoption of value-added products and services, and strong lead growth.' International markets, especially Canada and the UK, also contributed to the growth through higher traffic and dealer engagement. Is now the time to buy CARG? Find out in our full research report (it's free). Revenue: $225.2 million vs analyst estimates of $226.2 million (4.3% year-on-year growth, in line) Adjusted EPS: $0.46 vs analyst estimates of $0.44 (5.5% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $66.3 million vs analyst estimates of $63.61 million (29.4% margin, 4.2% beat) Revenue Guidance for Q2 CY2025 is $232 million at the midpoint, roughly in line with what analysts were expecting Adjusted EPS guidance for Q2 CY2025 is $0.55 at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $0.45 EBITDA guidance for Q2 CY2025 is $75.5 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $65.68 million Operating Margin: 20.3%, up from 12.2% in the same quarter last year Paying Dealers: 32,372, up 1,197 year on year Market Capitalization: $3.29 billion While we enjoy listening to the management's commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls are the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Wyatt Swanson (D.A. Davidson) asked about Amazon's potential entry into used vehicle listings and its impact. CEO Jason Trevisan responded that building trust and dealer integration in used car marketplaces is complex, and CarGurus' longstanding relationships give it an advantage. He noted no impact from Amazon's new Hyundai offering. Naved Khan (B. Riley Securities) inquired about OEM ad spending sustainability amid macro uncertainty and the trajectory for CarOffer. President Sam Zales pointed to strong current OEM demand but acknowledged OEMs are cautious due to tariffs, while CarOffer is under strategic review to improve its operational model and profitability. Rajat Gupta (JPMorgan) asked about the revenue split between dealer count growth and revenue per dealer. Trevisan explained that both factors contributed in Q1, but rapid dealer growth can moderate revenue per dealer expansion. He also noted no significant tariff-related changes in dealer spending patterns. Jed Kelly (Oppenheimer) questioned the rationale behind reinvesting instead of maximizing margin expansion and whether CarOffer might shift toward an auction model. Trevisan said investing behind current marketplace momentum is key for long-term leadership, while Zales said the company is exploring new models for CarOffer but aims to leverage differentiated analytics rather than replicate competitors. No further analyst questions were presented on the call. In the coming quarters, our team will be monitoring (1) the rate of dealer platform adoption and ongoing upgrades to subscription tiers, (2) execution of product innovation initiatives—particularly AI-driven recommendation and transaction tools, and (3) progress on the strategic review and potential transformation of the wholesale segment. Sustained international momentum and OEM advertising trends will also be important markers for CarGurus' overall execution. CarGurus currently trades at $33.33, up from $27.95 just before the earnings. Is the company at an inflection point that warrants a buy or sell? See for yourself in our full research report (it's free). Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election sent major indices to all-time highs, but stocks have retraced as investors debate the health of the economy and the potential impact of tariffs. While this leaves much uncertainty around 2025, a few companies are poised for long-term gains regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate, like our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025). Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+782% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Truist Lifts Etsy Price Target Amid Surge in User Growth
Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) is one of the best consumer cyclical stocks to buy. On June 17, Truist Securities maintained its Buy rating on Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY), but increased its price target to $60 from $ price target rise follows after Truist Card Data revealed that Etsy's Marketplace revenue quarter-to-date through June 11 is exceeding forecasts. Truist also observed a surge in the number of monthly active users, which increased year-over-year and reached its highest level in 22 months. This indicates that the company's growth activities are having a favorable impact. Along with increased marketing effectiveness that has allowed Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) to win more ad auctions, these efforts also include improvements in product quality, particularly discoverability and quality score. Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) operates two-sided online marketplaces that link millions of creative customers and sellers globally. The company manages Reverb, Depop, and Elo7 in addition to its main marketplace, Etsy, which specializes in unique and creative products. While we acknowledge the potential of ETSY as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. Read More: and Disclosure: None.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Truist Lifts Etsy Price Target Amid Surge in User Growth
Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) is one of the best consumer cyclical stocks to buy. On June 17, Truist Securities maintained its Buy rating on Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY), but increased its price target to $60 from $ price target rise follows after Truist Card Data revealed that Etsy's Marketplace revenue quarter-to-date through June 11 is exceeding forecasts. Truist also observed a surge in the number of monthly active users, which increased year-over-year and reached its highest level in 22 months. This indicates that the company's growth activities are having a favorable impact. Along with increased marketing effectiveness that has allowed Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) to win more ad auctions, these efforts also include improvements in product quality, particularly discoverability and quality score. Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETSY) operates two-sided online marketplaces that link millions of creative customers and sellers globally. The company manages Reverb, Depop, and Elo7 in addition to its main marketplace, Etsy, which specializes in unique and creative products. While we acknowledge the potential of ETSY as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. Read More: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
