The Digital Advertising world is a huge ecosystem composed by thousand of players. This post is a way of exploration of this environment.
Let’s start with some basic concepts: SSP and DSP
- SSP (Supply-Side Platform): These platforms are used by publishers (like this blog) to sell their ad inventory to the highest bidder. They make ad spaces available to DSPs via programmatic auctions.
- DSP (Demand-Side Platform): These platforms are used by advertisers to bid for and buy ad inventory. They integrate with SSPs to access ad spaces and ensure efficient targeting.
Who are some of the main players in each side of the table?
This is not an exclusive table, I have divided the table in two tables to cover Western world and Asian world.
In Western countries, the major players are Google, Meta and Amazon.
| Supply-Side Platform (SSP) | Demand-Side Platform (DSP) |
|---|---|
| Google Ad Manager (Ad Exchange functionality) | Google Display & Video 360 (DV360) |
| Facebook, Instagram, Threads… | Meta (Facebook Ads Manager) |
| Amazon Publisher Services (APS) | Amazon DSP |
| Xandr (formerly AppNexus, now part of Microsoft) | The Trade Desk (Largest independent DSP) |
| Index Exchange | DoubleClick Bid Manager (Now DV360) |
| OpenX | Adobe Advertising Cloud |
| Verizon Media (Yahoo SSP, now part of Apollo Global) | SmartyAds DSP |
| Sovrn | MediaMath |
| TripleLift | Amobee |
| PubMatic | Basis (formerly Centro DSP) |
| Magnite (formerly Rubicon Project) |
In Asia, especially in China, we have three major players: Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba.
| Supply-Side Platform (SSP) | Demand-Side Platform (DSP) |
|---|---|
| Tencent Ads (manages Tencent’s inventory) | Tencent DSP |
| Baidu SSP (operates its own ad exchange) | Baidu DSP |
| Alibaba SSP (Alibaba Unified Marketing Platform) | Alibaba Ads DSP (Taobao, Tmall) |
| Bytedance SSP (for third-party apps and Douyin inventory) | TikTok Ads (Bytedance DSP) |
| Rakuten Marketing SSP (Japan) | Rakuten DSP |
| Kakao SSP (South Korea) | Line Ads DSP (Japan and Asia-Pacific) |
| Naver SSP (South Korea) | Weibo DSP |
| JD Ad Exchange (Jingdong SSP for e-commerce) | Kuaishou DSP (Chinese short video platform) |
| iPinYou SSP (China’s largest independent SSP) | iPinYou DSP |
| Mobvista SSP (focused on mobile) | Bilibili DSP |
Let’s map the territory
This is an initial map, with a critical aspect: many players (see the tables above) are sit in both sides of the table: acting as SSP and DSP.
The question an advertiser or a publisher can ask is:
Is my SSP / DSP acting in the most favorable way for me?
I do not have the answer, but this is something that can help you to understand things as:
- How powerful the digital platforms are,
- Why there are different litigations against Google and Meta about abuse of dominant position.
Are the major advertisers learning the lesson?
I would say “yes” and “no”. I have the feeling the advertisers do not want to be out of the scene and accept the “extra” price of being present in these platforms, but on the other hand, the fact that companies as The Trade Desk, a public company from US with 3100 employees that just play the role of Demand-side platform, is an indication that other options are thriving.
Trying to understand Google’s Dominance
This map goes a little bit more in detail of the flow of the Ad and the space through its demand and offer.
Looking at the whole value chain, you can see as all is operated by Google.
Where is competition happening?
It is important to understand how dominant is Google AdSense, as it’s one of the few Supply-side platforms that enable very small sites to offer spaces. In the case of Facebook, it’s not your space, it’s Meta’s space, but in your website, you can use Google. Do you have in your mind other players that you can use?
Here a list of other Supply-side platforms, look some of them have minimum traffic required:
| Name | Minimum Traffic Required |
|---|---|
| Ezoic | 10,000 monthly visits (Access Now supports smaller sites) |
| Mediavine | 50,000 sessions per month |
| AdThrive | 100,000 monthly pageviews |
| Media.net | No strict minimum traffic |
| Sovrn | No strict minimum traffic |
| RevenueHits | No strict minimum traffic |
| Infolinks | No strict minimum traffic |
So, here Google is the complete dominant in Western countries. This means that the strong competition is being happening in the Demand-side.
Takeaways
This is an interesting space, very competitive and with mature players willing to continue dominating the space. Thousand of people work with AdSense and do SEO trying to monetize content, to me the duopoly Google AdSense and Google Ads Platform is one of more proficient duopolies, oh sorry, they belong to the same company!
I’m curious about the changes that are coming in this space.
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