There are more platforms than Super Mario on this week’s The Big Story.
First up, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has exited stage… right? Left? To pick a more workable metaphor, he’s passed the reigns to Andy Jassy, former Amazon Web Services chief. That decision should give you an indication of Amazon’s coming priorities.
We’ll chat a little about this announcement, which happened , and we’ll also give you any updates on Amazon’s booming advertising business. Spoiler alert: there weren’t a lot of updates during the earnings call. But fortunately, we did speak with Amazon Advertising exec Colleen Aubrey in late January – if you want an update on what that unit has in store for 2021, check it out here.
After that, we’ll platform jump to Google’s Q4 earnings update. News flash: advertisers are coming back, with search and YouTube being particular beneficiaries of their marketing dollars. Much of Google’s Q4 resurgence is a continuation of what started in Q3. We’ll dig into the details.
And after the break, the heavyweight bout of 2021: Facebook vs. Apple.
As you all know, Apple is curtailing use of its IDFA identifier on iOS 14 devices. Users will have to actively opt in to allow tracking, rather than opting out to disallow it. So Facebook is testing its own pop-up messaging within its core Facebook and Instagram apps that explain why you should enable tracking.
But this staid little development is all part of a bigger fight between Apple and Facebook, much of which is happening over the media outlets. Facebook is executing a hard PR push against Apple, while CEO Tim Cook has been criticizing the data economy in his public speeches.
What’s the score so far? The AdExchanger team will tally up the numbers.
