According to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, companies including Vox Media LLC, BuzzFeed’s Complex Networks and Bustle parent BDG said they have started testing or are considering using their own versions of mobile-optimised article pages, instead of building them using the Accelerated Mobile Pages framework.
The thinking is that dropping AMP would give them more control over their page designs and ad formats, and make it easier for them to sell ad space in auctions that include a greater number of ad marketplaces.
According to the WSJ, media executives and consultants said they expect non-AMP pages to garner at least 20% more advertising revenue than AMP pages in most cases, without affecting loading speeds.
“You can make your own webpages perform really well without making compromises Google requires to make AMP work,” said Tyler Love, chief technology officer at BDG, which owns brands such as Bustle, Gawker, Nylon and W.
“If there’s equal opportunity to do AMP and non-AMP pages, we’ll focus on non-AMP pages,” said Christian Baesler, chief executive of Complex Networks and chief operating officer of BuzzFeed.
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