Stratechery founder Ben Thompson discusses how Google and Facebook dominate the digital ad industry through advertiser tool integration and ROI efficiency.
0:00 / 0:14exact quote · 14.9s
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“The real sort of problematic angle to Google and Facebook is less the consumer front end and more the advertiser back end such that it's not really viable to build a mass market advertising business in the current day because Facebook and Google are so dominant.”
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Insight
Publishers must distribute on Facebook's terms because the platform owns demand
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What-if
Google would thrive even if all ad targeting and data collection vanished
“And if all targeting and data collection went away tomorrow, Google would still be in fantastic shape.”
Ben ThompsonSep 5, 2018▶ 1:02:13#40 Ben Thompson: Thriving in a Digital World
PredictionNot checkable as stated
Tech giants will be disrupted by paradigm shifts, not direct competitors
“Their sort of upheaval and downfall will come not from someone being in a garage alone. It will come from someone being in a garage who latches onto the next paradigm shift that makes it impossible for, you know, the powers that be to compete.”
Ben ThompsonSep 5, 2018▶ 1:05:11#40 Ben Thompson: Thriving in a Digital World
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