Yes. As the article mentions, Google has hilariously set in products on all sides of the market, and then slowly forced everyone to switch to using them.<p>When you sell ad space, you have to use a Google program to broker that deal for you. When you buy ad space, you have to use a Google program to broker that deal for you. And the market these deals are brokered on is also Google's.<p>In an ideal world, the brokers buying and selling ad space should be trying to get the best deal for their customers. But when Google runs all sides of the table, it's optimizing for it's own profit.
The full article [1]. The coolest part about the original is its detailed description of the ad market structure.<p>And, yes, the world would be a better place if markets with a network monopoly were subject to compulsory routing rules (like reg NMS) and anti-fraud rules (like 10b-5).<p>Compulsory routing should kick in after a reasonable run of first-mover monopoly profits, balancing the need to incentivize investment against the need to limit rent seeking.<p>[1] <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3500919" rel="nofollow">https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3500919</a>
Google seems a little harder to break up than Amazon/AWS, but you could probably do it with a little work:<p>- GCP is one thing<p>- The various consumer facing loss leader content services can stick together: YouTube, Gmail, Maps…<p>- Google ad market, YouTube recs, and Google search should be spun off and regulated as neutral platforms
Third-party cookies are going away across the major browsers. Hulu, Roku, and Xfinity all launched self-serve advertising products recently. Targeted video advertising is going to be interesting in the next few years.