Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
A Feed Frenzy
TikTok seems to possess some kind of viral pixie dust it sprinkles on every user’s feed. There’s a general sense that TikTok always nails it with the sharpest, timeliest content.
And here’s why: TikTok was built as a feed and created specifically for short-form vertical videos, writes Arvind Narayanan in a blog for Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute.
For comparison’s sake, YouTube has a queue, not a scrollable feed. TikTok’s feed format allows people to effortlessly breeze through the stuff that doesn’t stick, which allows its recommendation algorithm to quickly find new hits. On YouTube, clicking on a dud means having to go and find something new, which can be annoying. YouTube also often forces longer-form and horizontal videos into Shorts, its TikTok clone, which creates a jarring viewing experience when the aspect ratio gets squished, Narayanan says.
Meanwhile, over on Reels, Instagram’s main problem is that it has to cater to influencers and celeb accounts with large followings. TikTok judges each video for its stand-alone content and virality and is therefore able to find gems among little-known accounts. The power accounts and influencers of Instagram will revolt if accounts with no standing start usurping their distribution juice.
“TikTok’s recommender system is not its secret,” Narayanan writes. “Rather, it’s the design, which, of course, isn’t secret at all.”
Gotta Dispute To Distribute
Broadcasters are all in on streaming, but they’re still shackled to cable-like carriage agreements that promise a certain percentage of ad inventory and revenue to content distribution partners.
Ad-supported Disney+ launched earlier this month, but unlike the ad-free version, Disney+ with ads still isn’t available on Roku devices.
Roku gets a 30% cut of a streaming service’s inventory when the content plays on its platform – and 100% of the revenue derived from that slice of inventory – which Disney is not keen on.
Of course, the big players all cut special terms with each other, and Disney and Roku are in ongoing talks to find “an agreement that’s fair and advantageous to both parties,” a Disney spokesperson tells Variety.
Carriage disputes are nothing new, even in streaming. Netflix launched ads last month without support from Apple, and HBO Max only just got itself back on Amazon’s Prime Video this month.
But Disney and Roku could both use the cash they’re leaving on the table during this squabble.
Disney reported peak operating losses for the quarter right before its Disney+ ad launch, while Roku’s revenue growth is slowing down.
“This dispute could scarcely have come at a worse time for both sides,” Variety reports.
FLEDGEling
In August, Chrome expanded testing for Privacy Sandbox proposals to more users. And in a recent blog post about the FLEDGE proposal, Criteo software engineer Fabian Höring says the company is now tagging 5% of Chrome users, which is a big step up.
It’s good that sandbox testing numbers are nearing a level where the tests actually mean something. But Höring makes the point that although many FLEDGE features (read: restrictions on ad tech) are on the road map, they have yet to be implemented.
For example, FLEDGE, which is the proposal that would create replacement tech for remarketing, proposes a “trusted server” setup that would disintermediate the ad tech servers. For now, though, Criteo is still bidding from its servers.
Also, Chrome is ditching iframes, but the replacement, called fenced frames, hasn’t been finalized, so iframes are still active, which impacts results and user trackability.
On top of that, FLEDGE will rely on k-anonymity, a privacy practice whereby similar audiences are grouped together so that no individual might be parsed from the data. That isn’t being enforced yet either.
Oh, and here’s another biggie: Testers can currently use “event level reporting,” but FLEDGE will eventually move to aggregated reporting. There’s a pretty big difference between closed-loop attribution and modeled attribution.
But Wait, There’s More!
Tumblr shoots for a comeback with users and advertisers. [WSJ]
Two lessons from Netflix’s shortfall in advertising supply. [Mobile Dev Memo]
Stocks tumble amid disappointing retail sales and inflation fears. [WaPo]
More women are becoming regular podcast listeners. [Marketing Brew]
An update on Meta’s spyware account removal. [Axios]
You’re Hired!
ZEFR promotes Andrew Serby to chief commercial officer. [LinkedIn]
