It may also initially hurt tech giants like Facebook - but not for long. The fallout may hurt brands that relied on targeted ads to get people to buy their goods. “The internet is answering a question that it’s been wrestling with for decades, which is: How is the internet going to pay for itself?” he said. Tough Times Ahead : After years of financial strength, the company is now grappling with upheaval in the global economy, a blow to its advertising business and a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit.2: In June, Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief financing officer announced she would step down from Meta, depriving Mr. But the pivot is causing internal disruption and uncertainty. Zuckerberg is setting a relentless pace as he leads the company into the next phase. A New Name: In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would change its name to Meta, as part of a wider strategy shift toward the so-called metaverse that aims at introducing people to shared virtual worlds.Google, which depends on digital ads, is trying to have it both ways by reinventing the system so it can continue aiming ads at people without exploiting access to their personal data. Apple, citing the mantra of privacy, has rolled out tools that block marketers from tracking people. Driven by online privacy fears, Apple and Google have started revamping the rules around online data collection. Now that system, which ballooned into a $350 billion digital ad industry, is being dismantled. But in exchange, people were tracked from site to site by technologies such as “ cookies,” and their personal data was used to target them with relevant marketing. Those digital ads powered the growth of Facebook, Google and Twitter, which offered their search and social networking services to people without charge. Instead, brands splashed their ads across websites, with their promotions often tailored to people’s specific interests. It eviscerated newspapers and magazines that had relied on selling classified and print ads, and threatened to dethrone television advertising as the prime way for marketers to reach large audiences.
More than 20 years ago, the internet drove an upheaval in the advertising industry. At the center of the tussle is what has been the internet’s lifeblood: advertising.