Question-and-Answer Session
Yes sir. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Jennifer Watson at Goldman Sachs. Your question please.
Jennifer Watson - Goldman Sachs
Great. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about the trend in advertiser spending that you're seeing. Are existing advertisers continuing to spend more with you and put more brands on your site. I know in the past when you have given a number for the number of brands [inaudible] can give that as well?
Martin J. Wygod - Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Yeah. They have just passed me the number over here. I didn't actually have that number in front of me. Is this this quarter? This past quarter were 628 programs on our site in the first quarter. What we're seeing is that the majority of our customers are doing more business with us than they have in the past. What we have reflected on as we had revisited guidance a few weeks back was that there are some large pharmas that have been taking a more conservative than shorter term approach to their near-term marketing while they do adjust their longer-term strategies. The fact is that the growth in the pharmaceutical industry has impacted? has been impacted by product specific issues in certain companies. The consequence is, we're seeing them making some shorter term ad commitments in the consumer market that they did in the past in order to reduce their DTC exposure and at the same time you might have even read in the last day or two, continuing to reduce sales force. Our view is, it's about time. You know the fact is that pharma has been experiencing diminishing returns in these traditional marketing channels over the past several years, they realized that it is time for a new marketing model. They are making necessary structural changes to their businesses that in the long-term will help WebMD as our business model and importantly as you even see our latest traffic stats continues to attract highly engaged consumers and healthcare professionals to our brand of health information. So we continue to be clearly very excited about the future prospects of our business and at the same time continue to serve many customers who are continuing to grow with this, both in the pharma market as well as in the consumer products market.
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Rob Kelly at Citi. Your line is open.
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