TV, merchant media and the unbundling of advertising — Benedict Evans

Although these activities still have their place, we are increasingly seeing a number of media outlets — across a wide variety of verticals and areas of content focus — exploring some of the wider opportunities that eCommerce potentially affords.

A move to commerce-based business models is being further fueled by the increasingly transparent shortcomings of ad-supported models, where the users themselves are the products being sold. Some tech companies have exploited this model in a way that the consumer doesn’t appreciate—not to mention, allowing ads to disrupt the user experience in the p... See more

The distribution channels that underpinned the rise of today’s Internet giants have dried up. Google, Facebook, and Amazon serve as a triopoly that dominates online advertising. The three accounted for 90% of US digital advertising in 2020, up from 80% in 2019. The arbitrage that once existed on these platforms has more or less disappeared and CPMs... See more

While allowing advertising to dictate the buy box was immensely effective at increasing their take rate (anyone who believes this is actually advertising is confused — Amazon is just increasing their take rate and calling this dynamic advertising), this may end up being a very profitable short term decision that creates significant long term pain. ... See more