Published: 25 Sep 2007

Bebo has an estimated 11.6m users in the UK and Ireland.

As per the information available, while banner ad sales will go through Yahoo!, Bebo will continue to work with advertisers on what it calls engagement marketing campaigns.

Joanna Shields, President of the international division at Bebo, said: “Yahoo has by far the best display inventory and the best partnerships. We knew they could serve our demographic best in the UK.”

The average Bebo user is between the ages of 13 and 24 and spends almost 40 minutes on the site every day they log on.

Tony Coppel, Managing Director, Yahoo Europe, said: “This demographic is highly sought after because they are trendsetters around consumer products especially, and other categories. This is certainly a demographic that continues to be hard to reach, as they are spending less time watching television and reading magazines, but they are spending anything from 20pc to 40pc of their day online.”

Bebo struck a deal with Yahoo! in May to provide search results to the site. That agreement has been extended, the companies said.

In addition to ad sales, the pact will bring to Yahoo! Answers, the popular Q&A platform, to Bebo, allowing users to ask each other questions or the larger Answers community. The companies will also develop a co-branded toolbar to let Bebo-ers monitor their network. The toolbar will include Web search from Yahoo!.

Bebo is the latest social network to outsource display ad duties to Internet giants. Microsoft has deals to sell display ads on Facebook and Digg, while Google and Fox Interactive Media struck a $900 million search-and-display ad deal for MySpace.