CDP Institute

The second half of 2024 saw the CDP industry continue its shift towards embedding CDPs in customer-facing systems, according to the CDP Institute’s latest Industry Update report. Nearly all firms new to the report had added a CDP to an existing product, and major acquisitions including ActionIQ, Lytics, and mParticle were all made by customer management vendors. The new report adds coverage of composable CDP vendors, which is still a much smaller sector than conventional CDP systems.

TikTok went dark in the U.S. on Sunday, after the Supreme Court upheld a law forcing its owners to sell or shut it down, and then reappeared after incoming President Trump said he would save it.

While Google Gemini and OpenAI seem to be seeking entry to the AI-generated newsfeed space, Apple is temporarily pulling its widely criticized AI newsfeed. News organizations, notably the BBC, had complained about it distorting their content. One recent “scoop” said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested.

CDP mParticle is being acquired by ecommerce platform Rokt for a price of $300 million.  It’s the third acquisition of a leading independent CDP in a little over one month, following Uniphore’s purchase of ActionIQ and Contentstack’s purchase of Lytics. All three buyers offer some type of customer-facing technology; apparently they’ve decided that adding real-time profiles from CDP will give them a competitive edge.  (See this blog post for more analysis.)

Meta and X seem determined to confuse their members by flooding their feeds with falsehoods. Google is taking the opposite tack with an agreement to use Associated Press information in real-time Gemini AI search results.  Google hasn’t always been enthusiastic about paying to use news content but apparently they’ve decided that providing some level of reliable information is important.

OpenAI is also cozying up to the news space, funding four new Axios newsrooms as part of a deal that could lead to as many as 100 locations. As part of the arrangement, OpenAI will draw on Axios content to answer user queries. OpenAI will also help Axios develop technologies to support journalists.

Google’s search market share has dropped below 90% for the first time since 2015 according to web traffic analysis platform Statcounter. This does not necessarily signal a migration of users to AI search, since Statcounter compares search traffic only among the main search engines.  The likes of Bing and Yandex are still way behind Google.

That doesn’t mean the AI chatbots aren’t commanding greater dominance, especially in the U.S. ChatGPT achieved 45% of the U.S. market share in Q4 2024, while competitors are performing well in emerging markets. Google Gemini now has over 50% of India’s download market.

Media networks continue to grow beyond retail with LiveRamp and casino resort chain Mohegan Sun launching the first casino media network. Mohegan’s first party data will allow brands to reach guests and players and measure campaigns across the casino’s digital channels and many on-premise experiences, including slot machines and kiosks. LiveRamp’s role is unifying data across sources, creating connected customer views.

T-Mobile will acquire out-of-home adtech business Vistar Media for $600 million. Vistar Media is managing advertising campaigns across over one million digital screens. Its capabilities will combine with T-Mobile’s customer insights and data and its extensive in-store retail media network.

Contextual intelligence platform Precise TV has secured $26 million in private equity funding from Lloyds Bank-owned PE investor LDC. Precise TV helps brands plan campaigns for CTV, social video and mobile games. It’s the London-based companies first receipt of PE funding.