DIGITAL ROUNDUP - FEB 2024

Welcome to this month’s edition of the roundup to some core updates in the digital advertising industry.

Apple announces updates for DMA REgulation in EUROPe

Apple have put out a statement in how it aims to react to the upcoming Digital Markets Act regulation, with changes to iOS / Safari / App Store in order to give more transparency & opportunities for EU users, particularly with iOS17.4 releasing shortly.

(https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-announces-changes-to-ios-safari-and-the-app-store-in-the-european-union/)

DEEPDIVE

There is a lot to unpick from some of these updates by Apple & you can argue that the majority of these resonate more from broader conversations than the theme of privacy / transparency for user data.

The core pieces for advertisers involve:

  • The ability to navigate beyond the Apple App Store, as a means to process payments but also the general maintenance of an app.

  • On this note, high volume apps (1m installs +) will have to start payng a core technology fee (CTF) of €0.50 per annual install as a maintenance fee for where Apple have reduced their commission / made their OS more open source

  • On the Web side, the default browser component will become more open, with the role of WebKit as the default web engine also no longer mandatory

  • This may lead to the likes of Google / Meta experimenting with how they capture data on iOS devices, as a potential means to get around ITP (intelligence tracking prevention) but ATT on app remains a requirement

LIVERAMP ACQUIRES HABU TO EVOLVE ITS DATA CLEAN ROOM PROPOSITION

LiveRamp have acquired Habu, a leading independent data clean room company for $200m in a move to bring some form of consolidation within the DCR ecosystem where the use of privacy first technology alongside data collaboration is key

(https://liveramp.com/blog/liveramp-habu-accelerate-data-collaboration/)

DEEPDIVE

Data Clean Rooms are a fundamental component of privacy centric advertising & if you are not tapping into this in any form, you are at a disadvantage to the capabilities that come with this technology. Whilst this does come with a different skillset to use properly as well as potential extra costs, the value is being proven in-market.

Consolidation is always likely in adtech at a given point in time & the DCR ecosystem is starting to mature. LiveRamp & Habu have a lot of similiar design principles as well as fairly interlinked with each other already. But whilst LiveRamp’s SafeHaven DCR may have a RampID backbone, Habu’s tech is a lot more open in how it operates with other clean rooms & with the newer entrants to market in the ad ecosystem (Disney).

There will still be a need to use a mix of DCRs as long as the Walled Gardens have a viable solution, but there is functionality to at least look at this merger as a sign of things to come. This then may look to where the next consolidation may come, with a lot of eyes being on InfoSum in particular.

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