Spindling The Flywheel
The cryptocurrency company Coinbase is getting into ads.
And, unlike most developers or publishers that pivot into advertising, Coinbase takes an expansive view of the category. It also frames advertising as a net benefit for users, not a potential privacy and user experience risk to be artfully managed.
“Any piece of media, content, or user interface where the creator or developer earns a fee for having you do something onchain is an ad, full stop,” writes Antonio García Martínez, founder and CEO of the web3 attribution startup Spindl that was acquired by Coinbase last year, in a blog post announcing that Coinbase will begin serving ads in its own apps.
People who hate ads, he writes, think nothing of using referral codes, boosting other apps or services for fees on their own properties. They also often engage, or even prefer, sponsored media or homepage content.
“If the lawyers didn’t require us to put a big honking SPONSORED on them, you wouldn’t even know they’re ads,” he says.
The crypto industry, he writes, approaches advertising as “only the banners on top of crypto news sites or chain scanners, rather than the flywheel underpinning the only growth loops that work in crypto.”
Search Etsy Optimization
Etsy might be in trouble.
Sure, the company’s second-quarter earnings posted on Thursday were mostly positive – revenue was up 3.8% year over year for a total of $672.7 million, and while gross merchandise sales were technically down, they were still “ahead of expectations.”
As The Wall Street Journal reports, however, the company’s heavy investment in search ads doesn’t quite make sense now that search engines are a less reliable source of traffic across the digital media industry.
On a possibly related note, there’s also the major problem of Etsy’s declining user base, which dipped 3.4% YOY to 93.3 million people in Q2.
In response to these concerns, Etsy is exploring the prospect of advertising to agentic AI buyers, CEO Josh Silverman told investors.
“We believe Etsy is uniquely positioned to benefit due to our sellers’ massive set of unique and highly differentiated inventory,” he said.
Here’s something to consider, though: Much of that generative AI inventory already consists of AI slop, including fake products and even LMM-generated crafting patterns. Are AI agents going to be able to clock those the way that actual discerning artists can?
Let Meta Entert-AI-n You
If you’re a platform with a focus on AI-generated video creation, Mark Zuckerberg probably wants to work with you.
Over the last few weeks, Meta had been in talks about acquiring Higgsfield, an image and video-generation app for creators, The Information reports. Before Meta pursued that deal, it kicked the tires on a similar company called Runway.
Neither of those discussions led to a deal, obviously. However, in July, Meta acquired voice AI startup PlayAI and is currently discussing a partnership with Pika, another AI-generated video platform.
All of these moves indicate a bigger trend: Zuckerberg wants to get his hands on the most up-to-date AI to further Meta’s plans to give advertisers end-to-end automated campaigns. Meta also aims to create “personal superintelligence” as part of its user features.
Meta is chasing AI-driven content generation, too. In recent weeks, Meta has argued that “if superintelligence someday handles most jobs in the economy, then people will need to do something with their new leisure time, and Meta can provide that entertainment,” writes The Information.
Apparently, binge-watching TV wasn’t good enough – now we need to binge-watch AI-generated TV.
But Wait! There’s More!
Paramount beats its second-quarter earnings target in advance of its merger with Skydance. [Reuters]
The Department of Labor’s disappointing jobs numbers, combined with new tariffs introduced by President Trump, are upsetting the stock market again. [Business Insider]
The NFL has sold several NFL Media assets, including RedZone and its fantasy football business, to ESPN in exchange for equity in the network that could be worth billions. [New York Times]
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announces it will wind down operations after Republicans cut its federal funding. [release]
Even though Apple experienced strong growth in Q2, the market reaction is just OK. [Fortune]
Instagram is now requiring users to have at least 1,000 followers before they can go live. [TechCrunch]
Remember when Jeffrey Epstein hosted an AI summit in 2002? [Wired]
You’re Hired!
E.W. Scripps hires Sandy Padula as VP and head of enterprise research and consumer insights. [Adweek]
