Oracle Is Shutting Down Its Ad Business (adweek.com) 21
During its earnings call on Monday, Oracle CEO Safra Catz told analysts that it is shutting down its ads business. "In Q4, we decided to exit the advertising business, which had declined to about $300 million in revenue in fiscal year '24," said Catz, according to an earnings transcript. Adweek's Catherine Perloff reports: In August 2022, Business Insider reported that Oracle Advertising made $2 billion in revenue. At the time, revenue was only growing by 2% a year and many employees had been laid off as part of a reorganization in 2022, Business Insider reported. Oracle spent billions on entering the advertising business, acquiring nearly a dozen ad technology companies for over a decade. Notable acquisitions include data firms DataLogix, bought in 2014 for $1.2 billion, and brand safety platform Moat, purchased in 2017 for a reported $850 million. "Oracle's bet on the advertising industry was undermined when Meta [...] shut down its data to third parties including Oracle in 2018, following the Cambridge Analytica scandal," notes Adweek. Europe's GDPR further restricted Oracle's advertising business, leading the company to shut down its 'AddThis' publisher audience tool in 2019, which relied on third-party data.
Who knew? (Score:1)
Re:Who knew? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oracle had an ad business???
Yeah, and just think - this company which almost nobody suspected of being in advertising had 2 billion in ad revenue. When they decided to pull the plug it had dropped to 300 million - chump change in that space, but still nothing to sneeze at. So imagine what the revenues are like for real advertising companies.
The fact that we, as a society, put such a high value on what is essentially a parasitic activity, is gob-smackingly incomprehensible. We pay billions upon billions of dollars to companies whose sole purpose is to psychologically manipulate us into either buying shit we don't need, or paying more than we ought to for things we do need.
I'll repeat that - we all pay advertisers to manipulate us for the their own gain and that of their clients. And we often do it to our own detriment. No, we don't pay directly - but every time we buy a product which has been advertised, we are paying advertisers. That is just so fucked up that there are no adequate words for it.
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The Madison Avenue advertising agencies are the premier mind-control experts on the planet, and the political class is one of their most important client groups. The US is the most propagandized population on the planet, and most people are utterly unaware of it.
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The US is the most propagandized population on the planet, and most people are utterly unaware of it.
And yet everyone can spot your propaganda cusco ...
I guess you're just really bad at it...
Maybe Russia is down on manpower "for some reason".
Re:Who knew? We all should know (Score:2)
Every ad costs money. If you are seeking profits, this causes your prices to go up. As long as there is competition, the additional cost of an ad has to increase revenue at least that much to keep the advertised product/service competitive with its competitors. This is the way that free enterprise works and I'm not sure why you would have a problem with it?
IMO, the problem is when:
1) There are no or only weak competitors. This is a place government can help (anti-trust, monopolies, etc.)
2) Unfortunately,
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Oracle had an ad business???
Yeah, and just think - this company which almost nobody suspected of being in advertising had 2 billion in ad revenue. When they decided to pull the plug it had dropped to 300 million - chump change in that space, but still nothing to sneeze at. So imagine what the revenues are like for real advertising companies.
The fact that we, as a society, put such a high value on what is essentially a parasitic activity, is gob-smackingly incomprehensible. We pay billions upon billions of dollars to companies whose sole purpose is to psychologically manipulate us into either buying shit we don't need, or paying more than we ought to for things we do need.
I'll repeat that - we all pay advertisers to manipulate us for the their own gain and that of their clients. And we often do it to our own detriment. No, we don't pay directly - but every time we buy a product which has been advertised, we are paying advertisers. That is just so fucked up that there are no adequate words for it.
Parasitic behavior is kind of becoming a hallmark of modern society. Lawyers, insurance companies that never actually pay out, advertising, and I'm sure if I gave it more than a few moments thought I'd come up with a much longer list. One of the biggest at this point is the tech companies, who we pay to fuck up our lives, fuck up our psyches, and fuck up the world in general by manipulating human behavior through propaganda. It feels like we've hit peak stupid, yet somehow we keep finding ways to double or
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> society, put such a high value on what is essentially a parasitic activity, is gob-smackingly incomprehensible.
Flowers are just plants advertising to bees to trick them into spreading their pollen.
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Yes, the free version of MySQL inserted an ad into every 10th row in the database.
Next.... (Score:2)
Now, if all the rest of the ad companies would shut down, that would be greaaaaat. Thanks.
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Now, if all the rest of the ad companies would shut down, that would be greaaaaat. Thanks.
Yup. Was just coming in to say, "That's one down. Way too many yet to go."
Re:Next.... (Score:4)
I'm going the other way, I want Oracle to shut down the rest of their businesses!
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Yes.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Were the unable to sue? (Score:4)
If you saw one of their adverts and you didn't buy the product, did they try to sue you?
You know, the Oracle way.
Ai killed ads (Score:1)