Platforms

The IAB predicts what privacy laws might be passed by the new congress; AI-generated newsletters are competing with local news; and the IAB Tech Lab ramps up production of new OpenRTB specs.

Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk, calls it like he sees it. And he doesn’t see a future for Google monetizing the open internet via its SSP and ad server business.

Sen. Ron Wyden shared his stance on a federal privacy law, consumer data brokers and, for good measure, his thoughts on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg cozying up to President Trump. (“I thought it was god awful,” he said.)

At long last, brands on Threads can buy ads. Plus, Meta is also trying to copy-and-paste an alternative to CapCut.

For many advertisers and agencies, returning to TikTok this week felt a bit like remote working through a natural disaster: Business as usual, except not really.

The first half of this decade has left publishers reeling from a pandemic jab and an AI uppercut that rearranged our reality and knocked us to our knees. Here’s how pubs and their ad tech partners can punch back in the years ahead.

TikTok was granted a 75-day stay of execution this week. We discuss what’s next for the social media platform, why it was classified as a threat to national security and how advertisers are responding.

P&G pumps the brakes on paid media and turns to product innovation to drive growth; with TikTok’s fate unclear, Snap and Reddit offer credits for new advertisers; and brands are following news audiences and journalists to Substack.

Retail media might not ruin retail, but the strikes are adding up. Plus, TikTok throws its support behind Trump.

As a brand, the social media platform TikTok has only existed for about seven or eight years. Yet during that short time, it’s completely taken over the minds of users, business owners, advertisers, and, most notably, elected officials. And now, despite generating billions of dollars in annual revenue, it might be on its way out.

AI-generated slop content is growing exponentially online. Plus, publishers and new organizations are strategizing for a post-TikTok future. 
 

M&A started off with a bang in 2025. T-Mobile bought Vistar Media, and The Trade Desk bought Sincera. With a special guest from LUMA Partners, Conor McKenna, we explore the rationale for these ad tech acquisitions.

AI chatbots entice users into subscriptions with free trials; non-pornographic content creators are raking in ad bucks on PornHub; and the US TikTok ban has Americans flocking to other China-based apps.

Nielsen’s Matt Devitt, head of advertisers and agencies, discusses the biggest changes in how advertisers and agencies are buying TV.

Pinterest’s main focus is making it easier for users to buy through its platform. “We’re all in on shopping,” CRO Bill Watkins told AdExchanger.

Reddit COO Jen Wong shares how the company is banking on AI to push its conversation-driven performance marketing platform forward.

Would the internet be a better place if it weren’t run by billionaires? Plus, more brands are cutting out the ad tech middlemen.

Tom Pachys, Co-founder and CEO of EX.CO, discusses the company’s new expanded ad server, and how it sets the offering sets them apart from other ad tech companies.

Nobody is acting like TikTok will actually be scrapped from American smartphones. Plus, Venu Sports got benched – for good.

What is the future of curation in 2025? On the CES conference floor, PubMatic Chief Revenue Officer Kyle Dozeman talks about why curation is such a hot topic in ad tech.

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Three years after launching its own data clean room, Roku is trying to bring something new to the table. On Monday, the company announced the launch of a new offering, the Roku Data Cloud, which allows marketers access to more granular streaming TV data via ad tech and agency API partners.

Meta recently revisited its goal to create AI-generated “characters” — which backfired. Plus, Apple’s trying to avoid a class-action lawsuit.

Trap More Flies With Honey Honey, a free browser extension that automatically finds and applies discount codes, is being accused of defrauding its users and the online content creators who championed it. That’s according to a YouTube tech investigator who goes by MegaLag. He alleges that the PayPal-owned Honey effectively steals the credit for online […]

As the ad industry awaits Judge Leonie Brinkema’s decision in US v. Google (ad tech edition), get up to speed quick with AdExchanger’s in-depth coverage.

Google plans to create an “AI Mode” for its web search engine users. Plus, the social media vultures now circling the air above TikTok.

In response to shifting ad industry trends, A360 Media abandoned its made-for-advertising model four years ago and streamlined its site design to court programmatic demand.

Sports betting comes under fire over dubious ad claims and problematic targeting; Forbes says Google’s SEO crackdown on affiliate marketing caused it to cut freelancers; and SCOTUS takes on the TikTok case.

The in-game advertising market’s stagnation is both unsurprising and frustrating. The onus is on the gaming industry to make gaming an essential channel for advertisers, rather than a nice-to-have.

A class-action lawsuit takes Office Depot to task for deceptive pricing and ads; YouTube is taking over TV, but brands may be missing out; and advertisers weigh in on which marketing trends are worth the hype.