Google The Untouchable
Penske Media, Chegg and the Helena World Chronicle brought speedy antitrust lawsuits against Google last year following the DOJ’s yearslong monopoly cases against Google Search and Google’s publisher ad tech services.
The DOJ landed guilty verdicts, although the remedies were considered clement in the Search decision, and experts who tracked the publisher ad tech case now expect a Google-friendly remedies decision.
Late last week, US District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who wrote the lenient Google Search decision, tossed the case brought by Helena World Chronicle.
For one thing, he writes that the Chronicle’s injuries accrue in the news market, not the search engine market where Google exercised a monopoly. Judge Mehta was also unconvinced by the claim that the Chronicle is compelled to permit Google’s generative AI response crawler, which acknowledgedly absorbs news content and generates answers with enough detail to satisfy would-be readers.
The publisher’s search traffic would go down if it denied the generative AI crawler. But Judge Mehta accepts Google’s contention that AI Overviews are part-and-parcel of search, so there’s no unfair tying arrangement when publishers are required to consent to data scraping for traditional Google Search and generative AI responses.
“What Plaintiffs appear to really mean is that the tied product is Gemini,” he writes.
Ads On The Map
Apple is finding a route to greater ad inventory by bringing ads to its Maps app. The move could fatten its already booming services revenue, Bloomberg reports.
People familiar with the plans said that the Maps ad system will let brands bid for search terms, mirroring how Google Maps and Yelp operates. For instance, a sushi restaurant pays to appear at the top of search results when someone nearby searches for Japanese food.
The timing could be imminent, with a possible announcement coming this month, though Apple declined to comment. Apple’s service revenue already generates more than $100 billion annually, which is over a quarter of the company’s sales. That’s up from less than 10% of total revenue a decade ago. Within services, Apple Ads remains a small but fast-growing division that is expected to pull in $8.5 billion this year, according to Emarketer.
The expected Maps ads units come amid regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s other app store revenue lines and its lucrative deal with Google Search. Expanding ads across Maps could offset slowdowns in other areas while continuing to grow its services business, according to Bloomberg.
Manufacturing Consent
Big Tech and ecommerce giants have amassed dominant CTV market shares. Which is why TV broadcasters say the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) should apply to smart TV manufacturers, which they argue are just like other online platforms.
The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT) sent a letter to EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera on Monday calling for Google, Apple, Amazon and Samsung to be labeled TV manufacturing “gatekeepers” under the DMA, Reuters reports.
The gatekeeper designation would, among other things, restrict these companies from combining data sourced from two different services (i.e., mingling Amazon Prime Video and Fire TV data with Amazon ecommerce data).
ACT members include entertainment giants Paramount+, NBCUniversal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sky and more.
The signatories point out that, between 2019 and 2024, Google’s Android TV increased its CTV manufacturing share from 16% to 23%, while Amazon’s Fire OS grew its share from 5% to 12%. Meanwhile, Samsung’s Tizen OS controls 24% of CTV manufacturing.
“A limited number of operators are therefore gaining growing ability to shape outcomes for millions of users and businesses by controlling access to audiences and content distribution,” the letter reads.
The European Commission is assessing the request.
But Wait! There’s More!
Is the ad-funded creator economy actually ready for prime time? [Digiday]
Podcasts might be the next big thing for media companies and advertisers, but the focus on celebrities and video formats has some veterans ending their shows. [WSJ]
Meanwhile, Vox Media reportedly considered selling off its star-studded podcast business – and also mulled selling the entire company. [Semafor]
The Verge Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel talks to Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra about Grammarly’s controversial (and now canceled) Expert Review feature, which used AI to impersonate Patel and many other writers without their consent. [The Verge]
AI compliance startup Delve has been accused of violating privacy regulations, including HIPAA and GDPR, by an anonymous Substacker claiming to be one of the company’s former clients. Delve denies the accusations. [TechCrunch]
You’re Hired!
OpenAI hires Meta ad veteran David Dugan as VP and global head of ads solutions. [Adweek]
Azerion promotes Rebecca Callaghan to a new role as head of out-of-home. [release]
Novus hires Krithika Rosenthal as managing director of strategy & integrated outcomes. [release]
