Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their ad spend

Re:Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their... by im_down_w_otp on Sunday January 03, 2021 @02:39PM (#25624462)

Gabriel Leydon of Machine Zone spoke to the general topic at Code/Media back in 2016. Basically discussing that they'd gone through the trouble of building internal expertise and tools for optimizing their ad spend to better ensure specific outcomes they desired/required in a way that would inevitably lead to more sophisticated ad buyers and putting a nail in the coffin of traditional media advertising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXBqzpExvrk

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Re:Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their... by manigandham on Monday January 04, 2021 @04:20AM (#25629146)

This made the rounds in adtech in 2016 and it's really nothing special. His entire speech comes down to a single quote: "media will be quantified".

Sure, everyone wants that. Precise attribution has been the holy grail for a long time and the struggles are far larger than just a few technology products. The new battleground is first-party data and clean rooms vs privacy regulations. And that's after dealing with all the politics and perverse incentives that happen in such a massive industry.

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Re:Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their... by disgruntledphd2 on Sunday January 03, 2021 @02:48PM (#25624549)

Alternatively, they dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into ads based on a wildly unrealistic notion of a customer lifetime (much like the rest of Silicon Valley).

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Re:Uber discovered they’d been defrauded out of 2/3 of their... by im_down_w_otp on Sunday January 03, 2021 @03:34PM (#25624968)

I didn't say they achieved their goal. Though I do think it was/is an admirable one. It would be nice if marketing budgets weren't a near limitless accountability-free money pit.

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