vabank.nnov.ru was the address of VA-BANK, a Nizhny Novgorod banner network — a platform for exchanging internet advertising between local sites. The home page's title directly called it a Nizhny Novgorod banner network[1], while the footer carried the copyright line "© Copyright 1999 Manifest" and a note that the system ran on BannerBank technology[1]. The surviving snapshots of the home page date to 2001 and 2002[2][3]; in 2002 the site's design was handled by the design studio "INFORIS"[3].

How the network worked

VA-BANK was a banner exchange network: a member site displayed other members' banners and in return got impressions of its own banner on other sites, while the network kept a share of the traffic as commission. The idea was pitched through a puppet-theatre metaphor: an advertiser was invited to become a puppeteer, holding all the strings of the campaign in their own hands. Promoting one's own site, the home page claimed, "can turn out far better for you than if you entrusted it to some agency"[1].

The login to a member's personal account was placed right on the home page — fields for a login, a password, and a "Remember me" checkbox[1]. Next to it hung the network's own banner with a joking caption inviting visitors to judge its shape and lines, plus a separate box for members who wanted an attractive banner but did not know how to draw one[1]. The home page's feed was taken up by a list of new members with their sign-up dates[1].

Business and Light: exchange terms

By the summer of 2001 the network had split into two: VA-BANK Business and VA-BANK Light, with Light presented as a new network exclusively for entertainment-oriented Nizhny Novgorod sites[2]. Every newly registered site was credited with 10,000 "starter" impressions[2].

The network presented its exchange terms as the most favorable among Nizhny Novgorod banner networks: the minimum exchange commission had been cut to 8%, no commission was charged for transferring impressions, and members were promised targeting by time, geography, and topic[1]. By January 2002, VA-BANK Light had moved to a floating commission whose size depended on a site's CTR and could range from 5% to 30%[3]. Around the same time, the network reported that its interface had been fully converted to a frame-free version[2].

Who belonged to the network

In February 2001 the home page listed the main members: the Nizhny Novgorod Telegraph Agency, "Banks in Nizhny Novgorod," "Russian Detroit," "World of Plastic Cards," and the information portal "Kompas"[1]. Among those that joined in the winter of 2000/2001 were the mobile-phone salon "Zheneva" ("Geneva"), the firm "Avtoremtekhnika" (Auto Repair Technology), the company "Erzi," "Nizhegorodskaya Barakholka" (Nizhny Novgorod Flea Market), "Metalloptorg" (Metal Wholesale Trade), "VolgaTreid" (VolgaTrade), OOO "Promysel," and, on January 31, 2001, r52.ru appeared on the list[1].

In the spring of 2001 the roster of members grew noticeably wider: the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, OAO "Kerma," the Pushkin Opera and Ballet Theatre, OOO PKF "LAD," ZAO "Professionalnye Kommunikatsii" (Professional Communications), the travel agency "Benardi," a Nizhny Novgorod dating site, "Gubernator 2001" (Governor 2001), as well as the out-of-town directories Dir.ru and Webgid.ru[2]. By January 2002 these had been joined by the used-car trading site AUTO.R52.RU, the business weekly "Monitor," the real-estate agency "Triumf-Rielti" (Triumph Realty), "Tsentr Santekhniki NN" (NN Plumbing Center), the household-appliance online store "Simona," "Nizhegorodskie Pochtovye Rassylki" (Nizhny Novgorod Mailing Lists), and gsmphones.ru[3]. These lists show what advertising on the Nizhny Novgorod Internet looked like in the early 2000s: an information agency and factories rotated side by side with spare-parts shops and dating sites.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The network kept itself apart from public reviews and ratings. In the surviving table of results from the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, VA-BANK does not appear[5], and it has no recorded position in our samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating — which is only natural for a service platform whose audience was made up not of its own visitors but of the member sites themselves. For more on the methodology and coverage of these samples, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

Outages and closure

February 2001 began for the network with an outage. The home page reported that starting February 7 there had been unstable operation among banner networks running on BannerBank technology, and attributed it to a "falling-out" at the Moscow traffic-exchange point M9; the BannerBank system itself, it noted, had nothing to do with the incident. As compensation, VA-BANK credited every account with 10,000 impressions[1]. In the summer of 2001 the network warned of shutting down its banner-serving server and moving the whole system to another host[2].

No surviving snapshots of the banner network at this address exist after January 2002. The last snapshot in the web archive is dated June 16, 2008, and by then a completely different site occupied vabank.nnov.ru — OOO "Pervaya Transportnaya Kompaniya" (First Transport Company), a business that delivered concrete and cement and rented out concrete mixer trucks, concrete pumps, loaders, and excavators around Moscow and the Moscow region; the copyright in that page's footer is dated 2006[4]. By that time, nothing of the Nizhny Novgorod banner network remained at that address.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2008 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet vote, 2004 (archive)