Chitika, the online advertising network that, at one time, was an alternative to Google Adsense for publishers such as myself, has shut down, effective immediately. In an email sent to publishers late last night (April 17, 2019), Chitika informed all of their publishers that they are “shutting down effective immediately”.
“After 15+ years in business and millions of publisher relationships, Chitika is hereby shutting down and closing its business. Our sincere thanks to all our publishers with whom we have enjoyed wonderful relationships over the years. We wish you the best of luck and success as you continue to grow your traffic and revenue.”
Chitika began at a time when publishers, website owners, and bloggers were looking for an alternative or a complementary revenue stream to Google AdSense. It worked just like Google AdSense–you put code provided to you on your site where you wanted the Chitika ads to appear and they’d do the rest. When people clicked on the ad, the publisher, website owner, or blogger made money.
Based on the statement from Chitika, it sounds as if they lost their last major supplier of ads, and are shutting down as a result.
What I find ironic is that when the Yahoo Publisher Network shut down, they told publishers, website owners, and bloggers to go use Chitika. Now Chitika has shut down. Truly the end of an era.
Chitika tells publishers that they need to remove all ad code by April 30, 2019. “Please remove all Chitika ad code from all your websites on or before April 30th 2019. Any Chitika ad code or other calls to Chitika ad services after this time period will cease to operate.” Based on the termination of their partnership with their biggest exchange partner, no earnings accumulated after March 1, 2019 will be paid out.