This week, AI remained at the centre of the digital economy even as legal and regulatory battles continued to reshape the competitive landscape. In today's MadTech Daily, we discuss Nielsen to acquire DoubleVerify in $2.15bn all-cash deal, Amazon's ad revenue reaching USD$76bn (£57.04bn), Disney's TikTok creator content deal, and DeepSeek raising prices amid surging AI demand.

Nielsen has agreed to acquire DoubleVerify in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately USD$2.15bn (£1.6bn), with DoubleVerify shareholders set to receive USD$13.60 (£10.11) per share, a 30% premium to the company’s recent trading average.

The advertising industry took another step towards an AI-powered future as the IAB Tech Lab released AAMP 2.3, introducing enterprise-ready standards designed to help AI agents operate reliably across advertising systems while meeting privacy and pricing requirements. 

That momentum was echoed in China, where ByteDance's annualised AI revenue reached USD$4bn (£3.0bn), cementing its position at the forefront of the country's AI race. The company also reorganised its enterprise collaboration business around its Doubao AI chatbot.

Governments, meanwhile, continued to tighten oversight of the digital economy. Australia revised its proposed News Bargaining Incentive levy, increasing the tax on digital advertising revenue while requiring platforms such as Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn to strike more agreements with local publishers if they wish to avoid paying the levy. 

Apple also found itself fighting on two legal fronts. In the UK, the company renewed its challenge against government demands for access to encrypted iCloud data, arguing the request would weaken user privacy and security. Across the Atlantic, Apple expanded its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, seeking an injunction to block the company from developing products allegedly based on Apple's technology while widening its investigation to include additional former employees and related parties.

Elsewhere, the creator economy continued to gain commercial momentum. New research estimated the global podcast industry generated USD$7.3bn (£5.48bn) in revenue last year, highlighting advertising's dominant role in the sector's rapid growth. India's app economy also reached a new milestone, with mobile app revenue climbing to a record USD$345m (£259m) in the second quarter as consumers spent more on AI, streaming and productivity apps.

Finally, platforms continued refining their growth strategies. Snapchat launched a fresh campaign to attract small and medium-sized businesses, promoting its reach among Gen Z and Millennial audiences as it looks to capture a greater share of advertising budgets.