Investors don’t care about the open web; publishers are hemorrhaging traffic; and Facebook is full of AI bros.
IAS, LiveRamp, Innovid, DoubleVerify, Criteo exit public markets; The Trade Desk downgraded guidance—investor retreat from open web to walled gardens. AI-generated influencers displace human creators, threatening content authenticity and enabling recommendation gaming—signaling existential risk to creator-based business models.
Friday, August 14th, 2026 – 12:01 am
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Bear The Pain
Wall Street’s enthusiasm comes in cycles. Ad tech has lived through stretches of banker-fueled optimism and more than a few downturns.
Right now, the equity banker crowd is in retreat, Digiday writes.
Two-thirds of consumer attention lives on the open internet, but only one-fifth of ad spend follows it there. That gap is no…
The rise of advertisers' appetite for convenience over ad tech innovation fuels hardship and an exodus from Wall Street.
Apple abandoned its ad network; Did Cannes Lions abandon its creators?; and CMOs decide how much to abandon creative budgets.
Explore the latest stories, trends, and expert commentary from AdExchanger's The Sell Sider section—your source for news,…
The Economist builds content for humans and bots; Amazon slashes affiliate publisher perks; Political influencers cash in quietly.
OpenAI's hiring priorities hint at the nascent ad platform’s future direction. Plus: Cloudflare unveils tools to categorize…
