ByteDance

There’s no magic bullet for AI search optimization; how kids’ media monetizes outside of YouTube; and hey, whatever happened to the TikTok ban?

Apparently, we’re in for a hardware revolution; advertisers don’t know what to expect from the US’s new version of TikTok; and live sports should take better advantage of ad opportunities.

Oracle’s TikTok bid is a warmed-over Project Texas; Amazon’s ads biz has its sights set on Google; and gen AI search is a good traffic source for retailers, but bad for news pubs.

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.

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

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.

What happens if the TikTok ban comes to pass; Netflix’s live sports Hail Mary play; and Channel Factory surfs for buyers.

Social commerce is already huge in the Asia-Pacific market, and it’s poised to blow up worldwide. Here’s how the success of TikTok Shop forecasts the future development trends of ecommerce and social commerce in the US.

In today’s newsletter: Google tries to buy its way out of a jury trial in the DOJ’s antitrust case against its ads business; Walmart sees some of its best margins on ad sales; and TikTok tests 60-minute videos.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Clock’s Ticking TikTok has a legit ads biz, cultural heft and more than 1 billion monthly active users – including 150 million in the US. But within a year, ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, must divest the app or face banishment from US app stores and […]

In today’s newsletter: Google’s cookie deprecation delay hurts Chrome Privacy Sandbox supporters; mall chains go for broke with their DTC efforts; Warner Bros. Discovery launches a first-party data product.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg cautioned that it will likely take years before Meta’s generative AI products, including Meta AI, are ready for monetization.

In today’s newsletter: President Joe Biden signs the TikTok ban into law; upscale grocery and convenience store chain Foxtrot closes down; and IPG has a rough Q1.

In today’s newsletter: The marketing data ecosystem is key for fin tech; media buyers acknowledge YouTube as part of their TV strategies; and Threads will launch ads later this year.

In today’s newsletter: MiQ’s Lara Koenig takes the stage at CTV Connect to talk about what’s next for programmatic CTV; Snap can’t compete because it lacks scale; and TikTok faces a potential ban (again).

In today’s newsletter: Microsoft Edge debuts its Ad Selection API, a PAAPI competitor; the EU’s DMA is live; and OhHello aims to help ad industry employees network.

Crunchtime The EU’s Digital Markets Act has teeth – and now it’s biting, TechCrunch reports. The DMA regulates anti-competitive practices within “gatekeeper platforms” that have an annual turnover of at least 7.5 billion euros. Meta, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance all tick that box. Gatekeepers have until March to ensure their operations in the EU […]

GroupM and Magna release their global year-end industry growth forecasts, sharing their 2024 outlook for CTV, retail media and the advertising industry overall.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Apple’s Bite We already knew that Google shells out a heck of a lot for its default iOS search status – and now we know how much. Google pays Apple a 36% (!) cut of the total revenue it makes from searches conducted on […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Two Kinds Of ECGs The TV industry is riled up over Nielsen’s plans to incorporate Amazon’s streaming data in time for the next season of Thursday Night Football. On Wednesday, the ratings giant responded to the letter the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) sent […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Europe, You’re Down Meta may ask for specific consent to use data for advertising purposes in the EU, The Wall Street Journal reports.  After GDPR became law, Facebook began requiring European users to allow the platform to use data for ad purposes by […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Seeing Reddit The mass desertion of Twitter users and advertisers should be a bonanza for Reddit.  Unlike Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, Reddit is text-based, like LinkedIn or Twitter. But LinkedIn’s over earnest, your-bosses-are-watching vibe is a poor fit for Twitter types. Reddit […]

Based on TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s appearance before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Thursday, Congress isn’t buying TikTok’s claims of independence. And US legislators have no faith in any of TikTok’s proposals for safeguarding US user data.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ad Nauseam Launching an advertising business is almost always trickier than it might seem on the surface. Beyond the mechanics of ad serving, verification and measurement, introducing ads complicates a business model in unexpected ways.  Take Netflix, which launched ads, like, a minute […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Unfulfilled One of TikTok’s advantages has been that, as a private company, it doesn’t report earnings to anxious shareholders. Having a Chinese tech backer with bottomless pockets doesn’t hurt. (Actually, sometimes it does. More on that later.)  But while Google, Meta, Snap and others […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Out Of The Blocs The European Parliament has voted decisively to sign two pieces of landmark legislation into law. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) both regulate online platform businesses much more aggressively.  The DMA targets gatekeeper platforms (namely […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ecommerce Byte? TikTok parent company ByteDance is looking to take on Amazon and Alibaba with its own global ecommerce platform, Business Insider reports. The company hopes to expand its online shopping platform outside of China, which could launch as a stand-alone app or within […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Searching Social Google is negotiating potential deals with the parent companies of TikTok and Instagram, ByteDance and Facebook, respectively, to index posts on those platforms in Google search results, The Information reports. Right now, social video search responses are almost entirely sourced from YouTube. […]

TikTok offers fertile ground to build a media brand. Ten weeks after launching on TikTok, fashion-focused media brand Rag Report is posting twice a day and seeing its audience grow 200% each week.  The Wednesday I scheduled the interview, it had 170,000 followers. But by the time we spoke, the numbers were already out of […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. We’ll take that as a ‘yes’ The age of email-based identifiers is nigh. But are these cookie replacements actually as transparent about consent as promised? Digiday’s Kate Kaye says mebbe not. “Because many identity technologies, including Unified ID 2.0, use email addresses and other […]