Important Changes Taking Place in AdTech with Dhaval Kotecha

<p>Businesses around the world spend nearly <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/worldwide-ad-spending-2021-year-record-books">$800 billion</a> on advertising every year, and two thirds of that is taking place digitally. There are three players who dominate the ads we see when we're glued to the screen, as <strong>Alphabet </strong>(Nasdaq: GOOGL), <strong>Meta Platforms</strong> (Nasdaq: FB), and <strong>Amazon</strong> (Nasdaq: AMZN) together <a href="https://digiday.com/marketing/the-rundown-google-meta-and-amazon-are-on-track-to-absorb-more-than-50-of-all-ad-money-in-2022/">capture</a> 74% of the digital advertising market opportunity.</p> <p>Yet there are big changes underway that might cause a shift in the balance of power. <strong>Apple</strong> (Nasdaq: AAPL) recently announced in its <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/ios-14-5-offers-unlock-iphone-with-apple-watch-diverse-siri-voices-and-more/">IOS 14.5 update</a> enhanced privacy controls, which now allow iPhone users to opt-out of seeing personalized advertisements. Specifically, this move shields the mobile device's IDFA identifier from websites and apps, who might want to use it to place targeted advertisements for users. It was a crushing blow for companies who rely on those targeted ads. Facebook/Meta Platforms CFO Dave Wehner has mentioned the move will likely cost their company $10 billion in lost revenue in 2022.</p> <p>As expected, this restricted led to a mass-migration of mobile ad budgets away from Apple iPhones and toward Android devices instead. But now even Google is disrupting its own cash cow in the interest of protecting user privacy. Big G has announced it will be <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-plans-to-curtail-cross-app-tracking-on-android-phones-11645016401">curtailing cross-app ad tracking</a> within the next two years.</p> <p>These are important changes! The business world needs to advertise to drive sales conversions, and it needs direction from the tech giants on how they'll do personalized adver