Publishers were willing to forego revenue to escape Google's control, but Google coerced them into using AdX to charge a higher fee than any other ad exchange in the business.
Another great post. It's a complicated market to understand, but you have broken it down effectively. I wasn't sure what part of the Sherman Act this case was being tied with; thanks for tying that in at the start.
IBM, and AT&T had increased value because of competitive enforcement. With Google's current reliance on nearly complete control of the search and ad business, losing its dominance of information could take down the whole company. Does anyone have a guess on what will happen to Google's business if they are broken up? This seems especially important, considering their current leadership is an accumulation of uninspired business hacks. How could they ever build back value?
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this sort of honest, play for play reporting on a court case before. You add just the right amount of in-the-room details to keep a degree of context that wouldn’t otherwise be evident just from what was being said or presented. These are the sorts of valuable publications that make me grateful for Substack’s existence.
>>"For this elite game of musical chairs to work, there has to be a certain sense of humor and level of collegiality, even under the guise of the adversarial process that is at play. As someone who has worked in both big law and the DOJ, I’ve always found this dynamic fascinating, but also somewhat disconcerting, and perhaps rightfully distrusted—thought of as “the swamp” by ordinary Americans looking up at a system that does not seem to be working for them, but often for itself."<<
You have to be morally bankrupt to participate in this crony capitalist activity. A very ominous sign for the judicial branch which is essential to a functioning democracy.
I would find it extremely helpful to see a diagram or exhibit of some type that explained at a high level the process of buying ads. On one side we have the buyers, on the other side we have the sellers, and in the middle we have Google. Which products do what?
Frankly, I get completely lost in the technical jargon and really don't understand how this whole thing works, therefore I'm not entirely clear on what bad things Google was doing.
Thank you for explaining everything in easy-to-understand terms!! Keep up the great work!
Another great post. It's a complicated market to understand, but you have broken it down effectively. I wasn't sure what part of the Sherman Act this case was being tied with; thanks for tying that in at the start.
IBM, and AT&T had increased value because of competitive enforcement. With Google's current reliance on nearly complete control of the search and ad business, losing its dominance of information could take down the whole company. Does anyone have a guess on what will happen to Google's business if they are broken up? This seems especially important, considering their current leadership is an accumulation of uninspired business hacks. How could they ever build back value?
Deja vue all over again.
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this sort of honest, play for play reporting on a court case before. You add just the right amount of in-the-room details to keep a degree of context that wouldn’t otherwise be evident just from what was being said or presented. These are the sorts of valuable publications that make me grateful for Substack’s existence.
>>"For this elite game of musical chairs to work, there has to be a certain sense of humor and level of collegiality, even under the guise of the adversarial process that is at play. As someone who has worked in both big law and the DOJ, I’ve always found this dynamic fascinating, but also somewhat disconcerting, and perhaps rightfully distrusted—thought of as “the swamp” by ordinary Americans looking up at a system that does not seem to be working for them, but often for itself."<<
You have to be morally bankrupt to participate in this crony capitalist activity. A very ominous sign for the judicial branch which is essential to a functioning democracy.
Thank you for this.
I would find it extremely helpful to see a diagram or exhibit of some type that explained at a high level the process of buying ads. On one side we have the buyers, on the other side we have the sellers, and in the middle we have Google. Which products do what?
Frankly, I get completely lost in the technical jargon and really don't understand how this whole thing works, therefore I'm not entirely clear on what bad things Google was doing.