Adtech
UK finally opens antitrust probe of Google’s role in the adtech stack
The U.K.’s competition watchdog has just announced another investigation into Google over potential antitrust abuses around adtech. This is the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) second probe of Google’s adtech…
Aive automatically generates different video ad formats for all platforms
If you’re working for an advertising agency or you’re in charge of a brand, editing and exporting a video ad that works across all social and web platforms can be…
Apple is doubling down on raising consumer awareness of privacy risks in a new ad campaign, unveiled today, which puts the spotlight on how the data broker industry trades in…
Leaked Facebook ads document raises fresh questions over GDPR enforcement
Motherboard/Vice had an explosive report on Facebook’s business yesterday that’s sure to raise fresh questions over the lack of enforcement of European privacy laws against the adtech giant. The report…
Study of Apple’s ATT impact highlights competition concerns
An interesting new study of 1,759 iOS apps before and after Apple implemented a major privacy feature last year which required developers to ask permission to track app users —…
Google’s adtech targeted by publisher antitrust complaint in EU
Google’s dominance of the online ad market has been targeted by another antitrust complaint filed in the European Union by a coalition of publishers. This time it’s the European Publishers…
On Meta’s ‘regulatory headwinds’ and adtech’s privacy reckoning
What does Meta/Facebook’s favorite new phrase to bandy around in awkward earnings calls — as it warns of “regulatory headwinds” cutting into its future growth — actually mean when you…
The European Parliament has definitively backed major limits on behavioral advertising during a plenary vote on amendments to the pan-EU Digital Services Act (DSA). The move looks set to crank…
Mayfair Equity Partners aquires UK adtech platform LoopMe for $120M
Founded back in 2012, the LoopMe adtech/martech startup focused on brand-based mobile advertising, using AI to deliver measurable outcomes for its users. At its height, it had raised $25 million…
Over 30 civil society organizations, pro-privacy tech businesses and European startups are making a last-ditch pitch to try to convince EU lawmakers to put stricter limits on surveillance advertising as…
Spotify introduces a new ad format for podcasts that puts clickable cards inside shows
Spotify is today introducing a new ad format aimed at podcasters which it’s calling “Call-to-Action Cards” — or CTA cards, for short. The feature, which is powered by Spotify’s streaming…
It’s been a crazy year in growth marketing, what with the meteoric rise of TikTok, radical iOS privacy shifts and a staggering $240 billion poured into U.S. startups as of…
Twitter completes sale of MoPub to AppLovin for $1.05 billion
Twitter announced today it has completed the sale of its mobile ad platform, MoPub, to the mobile game maker and marketing software provider AppLovin for $1.05 billion in cash. The…
Adtech vendors still tracking EU users who deny consent via IAB’s TCF, study suggests
New research examining what happens after Internet users in Europe land on an ad-supported website and express their “privacy choices” — using a flagship ad industry consent management platform which…
Google agrees with UK’s CMA to deeper oversight of Privacy Sandbox
As part of an ongoing antitrust investigation into Google’s Privacy Sandbox by the UK’s competition regulator, the adtech giant has agreed to an expanded set of commitments related to oversight…
It’s been almost a year since the EU’s executive announced it would propose rules for political ads transparency in response to concern about online microtargeting and big data techniques making…
EU’s data protection adviser latest to call for ban on tracking ads
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB), an expert steering body which advises EU lawmakers on how to interpret rules wrapping citizen’s personal data, has warned the bloc’s legislators that a…
Google wins appeal against UK class action-style suit seeking damages for Safari tracking
Google has won an appeal against a class action-style privacy litigation at the UK Supreme Court — avoiding what could have been up to £3BN in damages had it lost…
Featured Article
Digging into Google’s push to freeze ePrivacy
Google has responded to allegations contained in a recently unsealed US antitrust lawsuit that it worked covertly to stall European Union privacy legislation that could have blasted a huge hole in its behaviorial advertising business. Per the US states’ suit, a couple of years after a European Commission proposal to update the EU’s ePrivacy Directive…
Admix raises $25M Series B to scale up in-game ads, and prep for metaverse gaming
Last year we covered adtech startup Admix’s $7 million Series A funding. The London-based company brings ads to games, e-sports, virtual reality and augmented reality. In-game advertising at scale, where…
European Union lawmakers are mobilizing support for a ban on tracking-based advertising to be added to a new set of Internet rules for the bloc — which were proposed at the…
Researchers show Facebook’s ad tools can target a single user
A new research paper written by a team of academics and computer scientists from Spain and Austria has demonstrated that it’s possible to use Facebook’s targeting tools to deliver an…
Ireland’s draft GDPR decision against Facebook branded a joke
Facebook’s lead data protection regulator in the European Union is inching toward making its first decision on a complaint against Facebook itself. And it looks like it’s a doozy. Privacy…
UK marketing-led group takes antitrust complaint against Google’s Privacy Sandbox to the EU
A coalition of digital marketing firms and others has taken its lobbying against Google’s plan to phase out tracking cookies — by replacing them with alternative technologies which the tech…
Australia latest to eye laws to curb Google’s adtech dominance
Australia’s competition watchdog is the latest to push for legal powers to curb Google’s dominance in the adtech sector. It has made the call as it published its final report…
Extra Crunch roundup: Adtech investing, Intuit buys Mailchimp, ideal customer profiles
In school, it’s highly unethical to copy someone else’s work and pass it off as your own. In business, however, it is expected.
Instagram will begin prodding users to share their birthday with the service, if they haven’t already done so. The company today announced it will now start popping up a notification…
MOLOCO raises $150M Series C led by Tiger Global at a $1.5B valuation
MOLOCO, an adtech startup that uses machine learning to build mobile campaigns, announced today it has raised $150 million in new Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management, taking…
Outbrain, an adtech company that provides clickbait ads below news articles, has raised $200 million in funding — Outbrain didn’t disclose the valuation of the company for this deal. The…
Update: Google has now confirmed the delay, writing in a blog post that its engagement with U.K. regulators over the so-called “Privacy Sandbox” means support for tracking cookies won’t start…
