Facebook Not Totally Giving Up On A DSP; TubeMogul Calls Google Out

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

The Facebook DSP

You may have heard Facebook is throwing in the towel on plans, first reported by AdExchanger, to roll out a DSP. Not so fast! VP of ad tech Brian Boland tells The Information that yes, the company is no longer working on a fully featured bidder product (too much fraud), but then he adds its attention has “shifted toward higher-value areas” like mobile, native and video. So, Facebook’s DSP – like the rest of Facebook – will specialize in the highest-value digital supply. Read on (sub required). And check out David Jakubowski’s official blog post.

Poking The Bear

TubeMogul calls out Google’s walled garden approach in a stealthy ad campaign and a manifesto-like blog post. The buy-side video platform accuses the search giant of conflicts of interest on both sides of the exchange, citing a lack of transparency and a functional monopoly over data and inventory. TubeMogul goes on to claim that, “Making money on both sides of a transaction is a natural conflict of interest.” The post ends by suggesting questions to ask Google reps before buying into their platform. More at MediaPost.

Deal With The Devil

The IAB Tech Lab released two new publisher solutions for common ad-blocking concerns. One calls for a new “DEAL” with ad-block users (meaning a site should “Detect” the user, “Explain” the value exchange in advertising, “Ask” for a behavior change and then either “Lift” restrictions or “Limit” access). It’s becoming a standard practice. (The NYT just adopted a similar idea.) To expedite the adoption process, the IAB also released open-source code enabling pubs to identify ad-block users and serve them specific messaging.

In-Housing: Fake Trend?

“What started as a trickle has yet to turn into a flood,” writes Digiday’s Yuyu Chen regarding the supposed trend of brands (like Allstate, Unilever and Netflix) bringing programmatic in-house, citing execs from WPP and Mediavest. Part of the issue is geographic. (Programmatic expertise exists almost entirely in NYC and the Bay Area, requiring serious brands to offer costly incentives to coax data science and ad tech skills inland.) Even without hiring hurdles, keeping track of the marketplace is such a headache that many brands are happy to let their agencies handle it. More. Even so, brands are undoubtedly choosing to ride shotgun more and more often.

Laissez-Unfair

EU competition commissioner Margethe Vestager fired the latest in a seemingly endless series of broadsides against Silicon Valley, this time in a Q&A with Mark Scott of The NYT. When asked if Facebook’s user data control may be a competitive issue, she said, “[T]he analysis shows that data can be copied or newly created without any detrimental effects to competitors. That’s why I have approached this area with a very open mind.” Sounds pretty tame, but she’s reinforcing the notion that powerhouses like Facebook shouldn’t have walled garden privileges with European citizens’ data, and that competitors should have portable access to some of that information.