In today’s Digest, we discuss UK digital ad spend in H1 surpassing the whole of 2020, Shein’s profit plunging 67% as costs rise, and ChatGPT ads expanding into new Asian markets. 

UK digital adspend in H1 tops entire 2020

The scale of Britain's digital advertising boom is coming into sharper focus. UK advertisers spent £21.2bn on digital advertising in the first half of 2026 alone, according to the latest Digital Adspend study from IAB UK and Mediasense. This figure is almost £5bn more than was spent across the entirety of 2020. What once took a full year to spend now takes just six months, with overall digital spend up 13% year-on-year. 

Search remains the market's dominant channel by a wide margin, pulling in £9.1bn and accounting for 43% of total digital investment. Programmatic buying continues to consolidate its grip on how that money moves, now accounting for 81% of digital ad spend, up three percentage points from the year before. IAB UK's head of insight, Elizabeth Lane, said the comparison with 2020 captures just how dramatically the landscape has changed, though she was careful to note that the story isn't simply digital getting bigger it's also about where that money is increasingly flowing.

Shein profit plunges 67% as costs rise

Shein's first quarterly results since listing as a public company, reported adjusted net profit of USD$228m (£171m). The second quarter experienced a 67% plunge from a year earlier, as its margin narrowed from 6.2% to just 2.1%. The culprit is largely logistics. Conflict in the Middle East has driven up jet fuel and freight costs, hitting Shein especially hard given its reliance on flying cheap clothing directly to customers worldwide. Fulfillment costs jumped 18.1% during the quarter, a rise Jefferies analysts called concerning precisely because it occurred before new European regulatory fees even took effect. 

Overall sales still edged up 0.9% to USD$11.08bn (£8.31bn), but only because growth in Latin America masked steep declines elsewhere Europe revenue fell 13.9% to USD$3.77bn (£2.83bn), and US sales dropped 6% to USD$2.5bn (£1.88bn).

ChatGPT ads expand into southeast Asia & Taiwan

OpenAI is widening its advertising footprint further into Asia. Starting 24th September, ChatGPT Ads began rolling out across seven new markets; Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan. This pushes the platform's total reach past 60 countries. Advertisers can access the platform through OpenAI's own Ads Solutions team or agency partners including dentsu, Havas Media, Omnicom Media, Publicis Groupe and WPP.