Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.
Death By Transformation
Medium is moving away from the ad-supported publishing model announced last year, without indicating what will replace it. The company has eliminated 50 jobs and closed its offices in New York and D.C. In a blog post, CEO Ev Williams said the company had successfully migrated commercial publishers to its platform, but the move wasn’t “transformative” enough. “We had started scaling up the teams to sell and support products that were, at best, incremental improvements on the ad-driven publishing model, not the transformative model we were aiming for.” Read it.
Turn Up The Volume
Pandora will roll out muted video and responsive display ads, allowing brands to buy a native, lean-in experience. Read the release. The formats, to be launched on January 19th, will display only when users engage with Pandora’s mobile app while listening to music. “When the video is running, it’s not dead sound in the background; it’s the station or song that you love,” Lizzie Widhelm, Pandora’s SVP of ad product strategy, told Adweek. Beta partners saw a 50% increase in time spent compared with previous products, according to Pandora. It’s part of Pandora’s push to build out its visual display assets as it looks toward programmatic audio this year. More.
Smooth Operator
Microsoft owned PCs, Google owned the internet, Facebook owned the smartphone … will Amazon own the connected home? Ben Thompson at Stratechery makes the case that Amazon has a legitimate claim on “the home OS.” Just as Google could give away Android for free in return for search dominance and Microsoft could sit pretty on developer licensing fees, Amazon “doesn’t need to make a dime on Alexa, at least not directly: the vast majority of purchases are initiated at home.” Amazon’s Echo has outsold direct competitors, but what really creates a moat for Amazon is its penetration with manufacturers. Just look at the CES parade of Alexa-enabled devices. More.
Eastward Dreams
Google’s Sundar Pichai has his sights set on India. The search giant is rolling out a tool to get India’s small businesses online by allowing owners to create mobile-friendly websites for free. Given that three-quarters of the country’s 51 million small businesses lack an internet presence, that’s a big opportunity. As it grows its own staff in the populous nation, Google is also partnering with Indian business organizations to offer internet training skills for entrepreneurs. Roughly 1 billion people in India lack internet access, and if Google can help get them online, it will likely be their first point of entry to the online world. More at WSJ.
The Frightful Five
“Together, the Five compose a new superclass of American corporate might. For much of last year, their further rise and domination over the rest of the global economy looked not just plausible, but also maybe even probable.” That’s Farhad Manjoo writing about Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet. But there’s a rub. The disrupters “have become incumbents themselves, and they are more likely to be treated as such by governments.” The EU is increasingly antagonistic to US tech – which in some countries has proven a political winner. Even in America, the tech-friendly Obama administration will give way to a Trump administration expected to side with legacy telcos (like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon) in key regulatory disputes. More at The New York Times.
But Wait, There’s More!
- Time Warner Doesn’t Need A Plan B If AT&T Hits Roadblocks – Variety
- As ‘Slither.io’ Goes Viral, Game’s Creator Scrambles To Keep Up – WSJ
- TiVo Launches Audience Management Platform For Data-Driven TV – release
- Live NBA Is Coming To Google’s Daydream VR Platform – Engadget
- Pingup Integrates With Bing For Real-Time Appointment Booking – release
- Google And Fiat-Chrysler Debut Android-As-A-Car OS – Ars Technica
- Global Ad Revenue Reached $532B In 2016, Will Hit $590B In 2017 – 4As
- Spreaker Launches Offline Listening For Podcasts – release
- The Truth About The Probe Into In-House Agency Production – Ad Age
- DMA And Other Industry Associations Petition FCC Privacy Regs – release
- AT&T To Test 5G Wireless For Delivery Of DirecTV Now To Homes – Bloomberg
- Mobile Ad Fraud Exists Where Advertisers Least Expect It – ExchangeWire
You’re Hired!
- Havas New York Hires Its First Chief Performance Marketing Officer – MediaPost
- Apptopia Adds New Marketing And Product Chiefs – release
