The Little(r) Browser That Could
For most general web users, Brave is the most successful browser they’ve never heard of.
But perhaps more people know it than you might expect. Otherwise, how could Brave have generated $25 million in revenue in Q1 2025, most of which came from the search ads product built into its browser.
Brave also distinguishes itself by building its own search index, The Information reports. It’s a pricey commitment. Most other search engines license Bing or Google’s search index as the core of their offerings.
Still, there is a glimmer of hope for search engines that want to quickly build up their own index.
The ad industry may have been disappointed by the relative laxity of the remedies demanded of Google after it was deemed to be operating an illegal search monopoly.
But, as The Information notes, the federal judge in the case did decide that Google “must share some of its valuable search index data with rivals.”
Dis-Affiliated
Everyone agrees that AI tech and LLMs will reshape the economy of the web. But nobody knows how or what business models will take root.
Criteo’s recent quarterly earnings became a referendum on how ad tech vendors might make a living once agentic chatbots control web distribution.
The company’s product chief, Todd Parsons, speculated that affiliate revenue will be the “underpinning to the trading” for advertising in AI environments.
It’s a sensible notion. There’s no guarantee that CPMs or CPCs work well for AI-based search and media. AI chatbots and LLMs are very good at generating conversions, though, and theoretically have the power to recommend products and/or services.
But Eric Seufert at MobileDevMemo argues that OpenAI and other LLMs (but mostly OpenAI because it’s the avatar by which consumer AI is judged) shouldn’t embrace affiliate revenue. What should they do instead? Personalized advertising, of course.
Personalized ads are more scalable and have “more positive-sum characteristics for society as a whole,” Seufert writes.
Still, he acknowledges that the current form of standardized search and web advertising doesn’t fit neatly within agentic AI consumer experiences. “The functional form of the ad placements that best monetize chatbots is a trillion-dollar problem to be solved by sophisticated product minds,” he writes.
Casual Reminder
Being cool – or even being profitable – won’t protect publishers from getting completely gutted by private equity interests, writes former Deadspin Editor-In-Chief Megan Greenwell for Talking Points Memo.
Most writers already know this deep down in their bones, but it always bears repeating. Because losing a beloved news outlet (or, even worse, watching it devolve into glorified MFA slop) doesn’t just impact its staff and readers. The brands and advertisers who invest in that content end up getting the other short end of a now permanently shortened stick.
Meanwhile, deceptive advertising practices often serve as the final nail in the coffin for many of these publications. That was the case at Deadspin. In 2019, the site started running intrusive autoplay ads for Farmers Insurance after failing to meet an entirely-too-high ad impression goal – only for Farmers to pull out of the deal during the fallout.
But private equity and ad waste do have something in common: Both can be very profitable regardless of how much they muck up the broader industry.
As Greenwell notes, “Only chumps make money by selling goods or services these days; the real geniuses rely on management fees, deal fees, dividend recapitalizations, real estate deals and the like.”
But Wait! There’s More!
ICYMI: Index Exchange is the latest in a string of publishers and SSPs to sue Google for what it alleges are anticompetitive business practices. [Adweek]
Amazon claims its Prime Video ads reach 315 million viewers. [Variety]
Disney is losing more than $4 million a day in revenue on the YouTube TV blackout. [The Verge]
Paramount+ becomes the latest streaming platform to retire its free trial. [Business Insider]
WBD is still very much trying to get bought, as evidenced by CEO David Zaslav’s recent meeting with top Comcast executives. [Semafor]
Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, is leaving to form his own startup. [Financial Times]
You’re Hired!
Criteo brings on Len Ostroff as EVP of business development. [LinkedIn]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
