Oracle CEO Larry Ellison once boasted quite publicly about the company’s 5-billion-strong ID device graph. But Oracle’s use of third-party pixels to collect information and profile users is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit in the US against Oracle, spearheaded by Johnny Ryan.
No doubt the average consumer would find the details of Oracle’s tracking machine, as outlined in the complaint, to be creepy and surprising. But to ad tech insiders, is the complaint merely describing business as usual, at least before regulators placed their magnifying glass over the industry and consumer outrage over online data collection erupted?
One section of the complaint describes how all of the pieces within the Oracle Data Cloud work together, from its ID graph to its cross-device identity solution, including how Oracle associates browsing behavior with a user profile.
“The fact that all of those things exist under one roof would probably creep out the average person,” says AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff. “But, in a way, it’s just describing how cookies work.”
Streaming wars
Meanwhile, streaming services continue to battle for subscribers and ad dollars.
On Sunday, HBO Max debuted “House of the Dragon,” attracting nearly 10 million viewers. HBO claims 46 million people watched the episode in less than a week. That number bests Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”
But viewership doesn’t always translate into profits, and HBO’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has been cutting originals and other library content to make up for shortfalls, prompting a social media backlash. On the plus side, it’s offered intro discounts for its streaming service.
Meanwhile, Disney+ is pitching advertisers in advance of its AVOD launch and trying to lock up dollars before Netflix’s ad-supported service debuts. Amazon’s Prime Video, meanwhile, is going after live sports, namely Thursday Night Football, as it tries to gain subscribers.
As these streaming services battle for audiences, they’ve moved from being a sideshow to standing on the main stage. For the first time last month, streaming surpassed cable viewership, according to Nielsen data, as streaming becomes the norm for more and more viewers.
