Moat Is Getting Shut Down

And more headlines you may have missed

Author

Digital Chadvertising
June 12, 2024

Drip Sequence💧

In case you missed it:

I sent out a report detailing the comp survey, if you missed the first newsletter the URL for the LookerBI Dashboard can be found right here.

If you are here for the Google API Doc leak, you can re-read the story right here.

Also I am always open to suggestions to evolve this newsletter, feel free to either DM me on IG or reply back to this email with feedback or with stuff you would want to see in here.

Headline Overviews

  • Google's privacy chief is leaving. He won't be replaced Google's Chief Privacy Officer, Keith Enright, will leave the company in the fall after 13 years. Google does not plan to replace him as they restructure their privacy and policy teams to enhance regulatory compliance. This departure comes amid ongoing scrutiny over user data privacy and significant corporate changes, including layoffs and a $5 billion privacy lawsuit settlement. Additionally, Google's head of competition law, Matthew Bye, is also leaving, coinciding with the conclusion of a major antitrust trial.

  • How Americans Get News on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram A Pew Research Center study surveyed over 10,000 U.S. adults on how they get news on TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. Most users see news-related content, often through opinions or humor about current events (like my IG page with advertising news). X and Facebook users frequently see news from journalists, while TikTok users get news from influencers. The article contains a lot of charts freely available you can reference as a resource from Pew Research.

  • TikTok comes for Google as it quietly rolls out image search capabilities in TikTok Shop TikTok is testing an image search feature in TikTok Shop, allowing users to take or upload photos to find similar products for purchase. This new capability aims to challenge Google’s dominance in search and Amazon’s image search tool, offering a similar service to Google Lens. Available in the U.S. and Southeast Asia, the feature is part of TikTok’s broader push into e-commerce, aiming to keep users engaged and boost revenue despite facing potential regulatory challenges in the U.S.

  • OpenAI defends against suspicions of Apple Intelligence privacy Elon Musk criticized the integration of OpenAI’s ChatGPT into Apple's Siri, calling it "creepy spyware" and raising data privacy concerns. OpenAI CTO Mira Murati defended the partnership, assuring that user privacy is a priority and no user data will be shared with OpenAI. Apple clarified that the integration will handle complex Siri queries without compromising user data, and OpenAI’s models will not be trained on this data. Despite these assurances, Musk threatened to ban Apple products in his companies, claiming Apple compromises user data security.

  • Uber is welcoming programmatic media buying to its in-app ads platform for the first time. Uber has introduced programmatic media buying to its in-app advertising platform, Journey Ads, within the Uber Rides app. This allows advertisers to purchase ad space using leading demand side platforms (DSPs) like Google’s Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo DSP.

  • WPP confirm Elon Musk as this year’s guest speaker In the wake of a controversial statement that Elon Musk made directed towards advertisers, WPP has announced that Musk, Chief Technology Officer of X, will speak at their Cannes Lions seminar. The session, titled ‘Exploring the New Frontiers of Innovation,’ will feature a conversation between Musk and WPP CEO Mark Read, discussing technological innovation, AI's impact on creativity and business, and the future of X. The seminar will be held from 10:00-10:30 on Tuesday, June 18, in the Lumiere Theatre at the Palais des Festivals. More details about the Cannes Lions program, running from June 17-21, are available online.

Oracle Is Exiting The Advertising Business And Shutting Down Moat

Oracle Corporation has announced its decision to exit the advertising business, as disclosed during their Q4 2024 Earnings Call on June 11, 2024. The advertising segment, which included Moat—a digital measurement firm acquired by Oracle in 2017—had seen its revenue decline to approximately $300 million for the fiscal year 2024. While not specifically mentioned on their latest Earnings Call, all signs point to that Oracle will be shuttering down MOAT.

How It Started

In April 2017, Oracle Corporation acquired Moat for approximately $850 million. Moat specializes in providing data and analytics to marketers and publishers to help them measure the effectiveness of their online advertising campaigns. This acquisition was part of Oracle's broader strategy to enhance its data and analytics capabilities, particularly in the digital advertising space. By integrating Moat's innovative solutions with Oracle's Data Cloud, Oracle aimed to offer its customers more comprehensive tools for understanding consumer behavior and improving their advertising strategies.

How It’s Going

However, despite the initial promise, Oracle eventually decided to exit the advertising business, as indicated in their Q4 2024 earnings call. This move suggests that the strategy did not yield the expected long-term benefits. The advertising business had declined to about $300 million in revenue by fiscal year 2024, leading Oracle to refocus its efforts on other growing segments, particularly cloud infrastructure and AI services. The exit from the advertising business indicates that, while the acquisition may have provided some short-term advantages, it ultimately did not align with Oracle's evolving strategic priorities.

What Happened

The decline in Oracle's advertising business, particularly involving Moat, can be attributed to several intertwined factors. The digital advertising market is intensely competitive, with dominant players like Google, Facebook, and Amazon making it challenging for Oracle to gain significant market share​. Additionally, the complexity and scale of ensuring brand safety and combating ad fraud require significant resources and continuous innovation, something that was increasingly hard to attain when the talent pool was increasingly snatched up by tech giants like Apple, Meta, Google, and Amazon.

While Moat provided a service that many in the industry were familiar with, ultimately it was diverting focus from other strategic areas from Oracle​. Furthermore, as consumer expectations for brand safety and ad verification increased, companies needed to invest in more sophisticated adtech solutions. Oracle's efforts in this space might not have kept pace with these evolving standards, leading to decreased competitiveness and relevance in the advertising market.

The Chatter

“lol we stopped even thinking of them as an option in Canada about 2 years ago. No clients, no representation.”

“I still use Moat and their rep did not mention this at all.”

“What are they gonna do with all of their assets? (Grapeshot, Datalogix, BlueKai, MOAT, etc.)”

“I used to use the search and they got rid of it last year. It was such an amazing tool”

What Happens Next

After Oracle's exit from the advertising business, the future of their advertising-related assets such as Moat, Grapeshot, Datalogix, and BlueKai is uncertain. These assets were part of Oracle's broader strategy to provide comprehensive data and analytics solutions to advertisers. However, given Oracle's shift in focus towards cloud infrastructure and AI services, it is likely that these entities will either be integrated into other parts of Oracle's business, sold off, or gradually phased out as the company realigns its strategic priorities​.

At this time there is word floating around the CRO of Oracle is being looped in to help answer client questions for this unexpected news, the current sentiment from other advertisers doesn’t seem like it sounds very promising.