Video ads are obviously a hot category. In fact, the IAB reports they were the fastest growing of all digital media in the first half of 2019, up 36% over the first half of 2018, to $9.5 billion in the U.S. Total digital ad revenue rose just 17% to $57.9 billion. Growth was flat compared to the second half of 2018, the first time ever that there was no consecutive half increase.
Estimates of CDP adoption range to above 50%. That’s surely too high, but the 1.9% figure in this Merkle study seems low. The broader conclusion that CRM, email, marketing automation and marketing clouds manage more than 60% of audience data does seem about right. Lots more here on maturity levels, privacy compliance, and journey management.
Open source data analytics platform Databricks has raised a $400 million Series F, bringing its total funding to just under $900 million. The deal values Databricks at $6.2 billion, an astonishing 30x its $200 million revenue run rate. By comparison, Salesforce paid less than 20x for Mulesoft. Yes, there’s a big world of data management software outside of CDPs.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.