A former advertising technology executive at News Corp testified that the company considered moving away from Google’s advertising products in 2017 but ultimately decided against it due to potential revenue losses of at least $9 million. The testimony came during the second day of the latest antitrust trial exploring Google’s absolute dominance of the internet.
According to court documents, News Corp earned $83.3 million in ads sold through digital ad tech tools in 2016, with the majority of deals utilizing Google’s ad exchange and generating $18.4 million in revenue from advertisers active on the platform. When exploring the possibility of leaving Google’s ecosystem, News Corp estimated that roughly half of the $18.
The Justice Department’s case against Google alleges that the tech giant maintains a “trifecta of monopolies” through its control of ad tools used by both publishers and advertisers, as well as the ad exchange that connects them. The DOJ claims that Google leverages this dominance to capture up to 35 cents of every dollar flowing through its systems.