The Digital Ad Market's Seemingly Endless Inertia

Apr 17

In digital advertising, the more things change, the more they stay the same?

The IAB put out its latest spending numbers this week, and unsurprisingly the industry group painted a picture of a healthy, if maybe decelerating, business. Digital ad revenue climbed 7% in 2023, buoyed by - no surprise- big jumps in retail media and CTV.

But then, industry pundit and CEO of Digital Content Next Jason Kint, poured some cold water on the figures, showing just how much of the ad pie still goes to Duopolists Meta and Google.

As ad tech vet Jonathan Mendez noted, Amazon pulled in a hefty $40 billion in ads last year - meaning that the Duopoly is on its way toward a Triopoly - and there isn't that much left for everyone else.

Meaning, as much as we all shout about the growth of ad upstarts like Walmart, Instacart and Roku, and the fate of the open web - there isn't that much to go around. And for all of the regulation they've faced, and major technical disruption they've endured (Apple killing mobile tracking, the end of cookies), Google and Facebook hardly seem to have suffered. Let's see what happens with all these state privacy laws, and FTC lawsuits and such - but right now, for the foreseeable future, the rich keep getting richer, and it's not clear what can stop them.

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