advertising

DOJ confirms it wants to break up Google’s ad business

advertising, antitrust, Google, Policy / Rejus Almole / May 3, 2025

In the trial, Google will paint this demand as a severe overreach, claiming that few, if any, companies would have the resources to purchase and run the products. Last year, an ad consultant estimated Google’s ad empire could be worth up to $95 billion, quite possibly too big to sell. However, Google was similarly skeptical about Chrome, and representatives from other companies have said throughout the search remedy trial that they would love to buy Google’s browser.

An uphill battle

After losing three antitrust cases in just a couple of years, Google will have a hard time convincing the judge it is capable of turning over a new leaf with light remedies. A DOJ lawyer told the court Google is a “recidivist monopolist” that has a pattern of skirting its legal obligations. Still, Google is looking for mercy in the case. We expect to get more details on Google’s proposed remedies as the next trial nears, but it already offered a preview in today’s hearing.

Google suggests making a smaller subset of ad data available and ending the use of some pricing schemes, including unified pricing, that the court has found to be anticompetitive. Google also promised not to re-implement discontinued practices like “last look,” which gave the company a chance to outbid rivals at the last moment. This was featured prominently in the DOJ’s case, although Google ended the practice several years ago.

To ensure it adheres to the remedies, Google suggested a court-appointed monitor would audit the process. However, Brinkema seemed unimpressed with this proposal.

As in its other cases, Google says it plans to appeal the verdict, but before it can do that, the remedies phase has to be completed. Even if it can get the remedies paused for appeal, the decision could be a blow to investor confidence. So, Google will do whatever it can to avoid the worst-case scenario, leaning on the existence of competing advertisers like Meta and TikTok to show that the market is still competitive.

Like the search case, Google won’t be facing any big developments over the summer, but this fall could be rough. Judge Amit Mehta will most likely rule on the search remedies in August, and the ad tech remedies case will begin the following month. Google also has the Play Store case hanging over its head. It lost the first round, but the company hopes to prevail on appeal when the case gets underway again, probably in late 2025.

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Google won’t ditch third-party cookies in Chrome after all

advertising, browser cookies, chrome, cookies, Google, Tech / Mike M. / April 23, 2025

Maintaining the status quo

While Google’s sandbox project is looking more directionless today, it is not completely ending the initiative. The team still plans to deploy promised improvements in Chrome’s Incognito Mode, which has been re-architected to preserve user privacy after numerous complaints. Incognito Mode blocks all third-party cookies, and later this year, it will gain IP protection, which masks a user’s IP address to protect against cross-site tracking.

What is Topics?

Chavez admits that this change will mean Google’s Privacy Sandbox APIs will have a “different role to play” in the market. That’s a kind way to put it. Google will continue developing these tools and will work with industry partners to find a path forward in the coming months. The company still hopes to see adoption of the Privacy Sandbox increase, but the industry is unlikely to give up on cookies voluntarily.

While Google focuses on how ad privacy has improved since it began working on the Privacy Sandbox, the changes in Google’s legal exposure are probably more relevant. Since launching the program, Google has lost three antitrust cases, two of which are relevant here: the search case currently in the remedy phase and the newly decided ad tech case. As the government begins arguing that Chrome gives Google too much power, it would be a bad look to force a realignment of the advertising industry using the dominance of Chrome.

In some ways, this is a loss—tracking cookies are undeniably terrible, and Google’s proposed alternative is better for privacy, at least on paper. However, universal adoption of the Privacy Sandbox could also give Google more power than it already has, and the supposed privacy advantages may never have fully materialized as Google continues to seek higher revenue.

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“MyTerms” wants to become the new way we dictate our privacy on the web

ad tracking, advertising, App Tracking, contracts, Creative Commons, customer commons, do not track, doc searls, IIW, privacy, Tech, VRM Day / Tim Belzer / March 25, 2025

Searls and his group are putting up the standards and letting the browsers, extension-makers, website managers, mobile platforms, and other pieces of the tech stack craft the tools. So long as the human is the first party to a contract, the digital thing is the second, a “disinterested non-profit” provides the roster of agreements, and both sides keep records of what they agreed to, the function can take whatever shape the Internet decides.

Terms offered, not requests submitted

Searls’ and his group’s standard is a plea for a sensible alternative to the modern reality of accessing web information. It asks us to stop pretending that we’re all reading agreements stuffed full with opaque language, agreeing to thousands upon thousands of words’ worth of terms every day and willfully offering up information about us. And, of course, it makes people ask if it is due to become another version of Do Not Track.

Do Not Track was a request, while MyTerms is inherently a demand. Websites and services could, of course, simply refuse to show or provide content and data if a MyTerms agent is present, or they could ask or demand that people set the least restrictive terms.

There is nothing inherently wrong with setting up a user-first privacy scheme and pushing for sites and software to do the right thing and abide by it. People may choose to stick to search engines and sites that agree to MyTerms. Time will tell if MyTerms can gain the kind of leverage Searls is aiming for.

“MyTerms” wants to become the new way we dictate our privacy on the web Read More »

Google’s Play Store wants to pivot from grab-and-go to an active destination

advertising, AI, AI summaries, app stores, Google, google play games, Google Play Store, play store, Tech / Mike M. / July 24, 2024

It’s still a store, just with a different product —

If multi-app shopping doesn’t keep you there, maybe free Pixel gear will.

Kevin Purdy – Jul 24, 2024 5: 12 pm UTC

Enlarge / I like the idea of clicking “Realistic,” “MMORPG,” and “Word” boxes, just to see what comes back.

Google

Google Play is a lot of things—perhaps too many things for those who just want to install some apps. If that’s how you feel, you might find “Google Play’s next chapter” a bit bewildering, as Google hopes to make it “more than a store.” Or you might start thinking about how to turn Play Points into a future Pixel phone.

Google Play’s “new way to Play.”

In a blog post about “How we’re evolving Google Play,” VP and General Manager of Google Play Sam Bright outlines the big changes to Google Play:

AI-generated app reviews and summaries, along with app comparisons
“Curated spaces” for interests, showing content from apps related to one thing (like cricket, and Japanese comics)
Game recommendations based on genres and features you select.
Google Play Games on PC can pick up where you left off in games played on mobile and can soon play multiple titles at the same time on desktop.
Play Points enthusiasts who are in the Diamond, Platinum, or Gold levels can win Pixel devices, Razer gaming products, and other gear, along with other game and access perks.

Those are the upgrades to existing Play features. The big new thing is Collections, which, like the “curated spaces,” takes content from apps you already have installed and organizes them around broad categories. I spotted “Watch,” “Listen,” “Read,” “Games,” “Social,” “Shop,” and “Food” in Google’s animated example. You can toggle individual apps feeding into the Collections in the settings.

It’s hard not to look at Google Play’s new focus on having users actively express their interests in certain topics and do their shopping inside a fully Google-ized space, against the timing of yesterday’s announcement regarding third-party cookies. Maybe that connection isn’t apparent right off, but bear with me.

The Play Store is still contractually installed on the vast majority of Android devices, but competition and changes could be coming following Google’s loss to Epic in an antitrust trial and proposed remedies Google deeply dislikes. Meanwhile, the Play Store and Google’s alleged non-compliance with new regulations, like allowing developers to notify customers about payment options outside the store, are under investigation.

If the tide turns against tracking users across apps, websites, and stores, and if the Play Store becomes non-required for browsing and purchasing apps, it’s in Google’s interests to get people actively committing to things they want to see more about on their phone screens. It’s a version of what Chrome is doing with its Privacy Sandbox and its “Topics” that it can flag for advertisers. Google’s video for the new Play experience suggests “turning a sea of apps into a world of discovery.” The prompt “What are you interested in?” works for the parties on both ends of Google’s Play space.

Google’s Play Store wants to pivot from grab-and-go to an active destination Read More »

Bumble apologizes for ads shaming women into sex

advertising, bumble, bumble billboards, celibacy, dating app, Policy, Social Media, tiktok, Twitter, X / Mike M. / May 16, 2024

For the past decade, the dating app Bumble has claimed to be all about empowering women. But under a new CEO, Lidiane Jones, Bumble is now apologizing for a tone-deaf ad campaign that many users said seemed to channel incel ideology by telling women to stop denying sex.

“You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer,” one Bumble billboard seen in Los Angeles read. “Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun,” read another.

Bumble HQ

“We don’t have enough women on the app.”

“They’d rather be alone than deal with men.”

“Should we teach men to be better?”

“No, we should shame women so they come back to the app.”

“Yes! Let’s make them feel bad for choosing celibacy. Great idea!” pic.twitter.com/115zDdGKZo

— Arghavan Salles, MD, PhD (@arghavan_salles) May 14, 2024

Bumble intended these ads to bring “joy and humor,” the company said in an apology posted on Instagram after the backlash on social media began.

Some users threatened to delete their accounts, criticizing Bumble for ignoring religious or personal reasons for choosing celibacy. These reasons include preferring asexuality or sensibly abstaining from sex amid diminishing access to abortion nationwide.

Others accused Bumble of more shameful motives. On X (formerly Twitter), a user called UjuAnya posted that “Bumble’s main business model is selling men access to women,” since market analysts have reported that 76 percent of Bumble users are male.

“Bumble won’t alienate their primary customers (men) telling them to quit being shit,” UjuAnya posted on X. “They’ll run ads like this to make their product (women) ‘better’ and more available on their app for men.”

That account quote-tweeted an even more popular post with nearly 3 million views suggesting that Bumble needs to “fuck off and stop trying to shame women into coming back to the apps” instead of running “ads targeted at men telling them to be normal.”

One TikTok user, ItsNeetie, declared, “the Bumble reckoning is finally here.”

Bumble did not respond to Ars’ request to respond to these criticisms or verify user statistics.

In its apology, Bumble took responsibility for not living up to its “values” of “passionately” standing up for women and marginalized communities and defending “their right to fully exercise personal choice.” Admitting the ads were a “mistake” that “unintentionally” frustrated the dating community, the dating app responded to some of the user feedback:

Some of the perspectives we heard were from those who shared that celibacy is the only answer when reproductive rights are continuously restricted; from others for whom celibacy is a choice, one that we respect; and from the asexual community, for whom celibacy can have a particular meaning and importance, which should not be diminished. We are also aware that for many, celibacy may be brought on by harm or trauma.

Bumble’s pulled ads were part of a larger marketing campaign that at first seemed to resonate with its users. Created by the company’s in-house creative studio, according to AdAge, Bumble’s campaign attracted a lot of eyeballs by deleting Bumble’s entire Instagram feed and posting “cryptic messages” showing tired women in Renaissance-era paintings that alluded to the app’s rebrand.

In a press release, chief marketing officer Selby Drummond said that Bumble “wanted to take a fun, bold approach in celebrating the first chapter of our app’s evolution and remind women that our platform has been solving for their needs from the start.”

The dating app is increasingly investing in ads, AdAge reported, tripling investments from $8 million in 2022 to $24 million in 2023. These ads are seemingly meant to help Bumble recover after posting “a $1.9 million net loss last year,” CNN reported, following a dismal drop in its share price by 86 percent since its initial public offering in February 2021.

Bumble’s new CEO Jones told NBC News that younger users are dating less and that Bumble’s plan was to listen to users to find new ways to grow.

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A crushing backlash to Apple’s new iPad ad

advertising, Apple, ipad, syndication, Tech / Paul Patrick / May 9, 2024

1984 called and would like to have a word —

Hydraulic press destroying “symbols of creativity” has folks hopping mad.

Daniel Thomas, Financial Times – May 9, 2024 1: 15 pm UTC

Enlarge / A screenshot of the Apple iPad ad.

Apple via YouTube

An advert by Apple for its new iPad tablet showing musical instruments, artistic tools, and games being crushed by a giant hydraulic press has been attacked for cultural insensitivity in an online backlash.

The one-minute video was launched by Apple chief executive Tim Cook to support its new range of iPads, the first time that the US tech giant has overhauled the range for two years as it seeks to reverse faltering sales.

The campaign—soundtracked by Sonny and Cher’s 1971 hit All I Ever Need Is You—is designed to show how much Apple has been able to squeeze into the thinner tablet. The ad was produced in-house by Apple’s creative team, according to trade press reports.

The campaign has been hit by a wave of outrage, with responses on social media reacting to Cook’s X post accusing Apple of crushing “beautiful creative tools” and the “symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements.”

Advertising industry executives argued the ad represented a mis-step for the Silicon Valley giant, which under late co-founder Steve Jobs was lauded for its ability to capture consumer attention through past campaigns.

Christopher Slevin, creative director for marketing agency Inkling Culture, compared the iPad ad unfavorably to a famous Apple campaign directed by Ridley Scott called “1984” for the original Macintosh computer, which positioned Apple as liberating a dystopian, monochrome world.

“Apple’s new iPad spot is essentially them turning into the thing they said they were out to destroy in the 1984 ad,” said Slevin.

Actor Hugh Grant accused Apple of “the destruction of the human experience courtesy of Silicon Valley” on X.

However, Richard Exon, founder of marketing agency Joint, said: “A more important question is: does the ad do its job? It’s memorable, distinctive, and I now know the new iPad has even more in it yet is thinner than ever.”

Consumer insights platform Zappi conducted consumer research on the ad that suggested that the idea of the hydraulic press crushing art was divisive.

It said that the ad underperformed benchmarks in typically sought-after emotions such as happiness and laughter and overperformed in traditionally negative emotions like shock and confusion, with older people more likely to have a negative response than younger consumers.

Nataly Kelly, chief marketing officer at Zappi, said: “Is the Apple iPad ad a work of genius or the sign of the dystopian times? It really depends on how old you are. The shock value is the power of this advert, which is controversial by design, so the fact that people are talking about it at all is a win.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A crushing backlash to Apple’s new iPad ad Read More »

Niantic and 8th Wall Explore New Monetization Strategies

8th wall, advertising, augmented reality, featured, News, niantic, webAR / Rejus Almole / July 5, 2023

Historically, Niantic has made much of its money through in-app purchases on its free-to-play games like Pokémon Go. However, recent announcements from the company suggest that it’s exploring new monetization strategies, including through web-based experiences powered by 8th Wall.

Niantic Pioneers AR Ads In-App

The Cannes Lions Festival recently took place in the South of France (and in Virbela, if you got a golden ticket from PwC). Niantic took the opportunity to announce a new ad format coming to its AR games.

“Rewarded AR ads is a revolutionary new ad product from Niantic, which uses the smartphone camera to immerse players within branded content in the real world around them,” said a release shared with ARPost. “Players engage with interactive experiences within these ad units while they move around in the real world to unlock rewards within the game.”

This might sound like it disrupts the game, or poses an undue bother to players. However, this might not be the case. If done thoughtfully, this ad format could be a way to introduce players to branded immersive content that they might be otherwise interested in anyway.

Niantic Rewarded AR ads

“Ad” might have a bad taste to it – like a commercial that interrupts the video you’re watching. But tastefully executed branded immersive experiences often feel less like ads and more like opportunities for consumers to participate in brands that they care about. Companies like Coca-Cola create branded immersive experiences that are actively sought after by fans.

“AR offers an exciting new way to engage people powered by fresh innovation in spatial computing,” Niantic VP of Sales and Global Operations, Erin Schaefer, said in the release. “Audiences can engage with Rewarded AR ads to have immersive and enjoyable brand experiences, discover new products, or engage with interactive features.”

What about immersion? AR is built on the user’s physical surroundings. Artistically done location-based advertising might play into the blending of real and imagined worlds, rather than interrupt it. So far, there have only been limited pilot programs so we have yet to see for ourselves.

Get Out Your Virtual Wallet

Tested ads in AR apps directed players towards a physical point-of-sale from within their game – and lured players with the promise of in-game rewards. But WebAR is where most branded immersive experiences currently take place and Niantic has a big stake in that world since purchasing 8th Wall last year.

In addition to being a larger established ad market, WebAR is less limited to actions and interactions within a given application. It’s easier to do things like conduct e-commerce through the web than through an app, and rewards for customers aren’t confined to a given application.

That’s increasingly true given the advent of Web3 – an era of the internet in which users access online experiences not through individual profiles and accounts, but through one “wallet” that maintains a digital identity across experiences. SmartMedia Technologies, a “Web3 engagement and loyalty platform,” announced such a wallet integrated into 8th Wall.

“By combining our expertise in Web3-enabled mobile wallets with Niantic’s AR technology, we aim to create innovative experiences that enhance user engagement and drive brand loyalty,” SmartMedia Technologies CEO, Tyler Moebius, said in a release shared with ARPost.

As with AR ads, branded experiences through WebAR linked with a user’s wallet have proved a promising proposition to users who might already seek out branded experiences. These experiences now have the potential to exist in other areas of the users’ online life.

“This opens up a new frontier of creativity for brands and the opportunity to redefine how they engage with their target audiences,” Niantic Director of Product Management, Tom Emrich, said in the release. “Our collaboration with SmartMedia Technologies adds a new dimension to WebAR experiences for brands by giving consumers ways to build and activate their digital collections.”

A World of Augmented Ads?

The film Ready Player One gave us an instant classic scene as executives try to decide exactly how much of a player’s field of view can safely be taken up by advertising. It doesn’t have to be that way, as AR ads can blend into the virtual world just as they so often blend into the physical world. Niantic isn’t a bad group to be leading the charge.

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