Germany No Likey The Likey Button

German data watchdogs went into uber-lunatic mood this week when they claimed the Facebook like button is, under German and European law, violating the privacy rights of users. In a broadside against the act of cookie tracking, it is cautioning users against the "evil" and "depravity" of nefarious anonymous third-party data collection. Right. Someone needs to slap these bureaucratic clowns around the head. First, Facebook is in the right here. Once you log into Facebook, you are opting-in for the Facebook cookie - no matter where it's dropped. And this kind of cowboy diplomacy is not helping anyone - the user or the digital media industry. There is a need to publicly counter these idiotic claims and work closely with policy makers. This fractured approach to cookie tracking across the EU is hurting our industry - and making it increasingly difficult to build pan-European businesses. ExchangeWire has had several emails and calls this week around the cookie directive, and how it is being implemented in the different markets. There are no clear guidelines yet. We really do need some instruction from the IAB on all this. ExchangeWire will attempt to collate what's happening in each country over the coming weeks to help stakeholders ascertain the legal implications of cookie tracking in the various markets.

Facebook Hits One Gazillion Page Impression

Sticking on the Facebook tip. The leading "message board 2.0" solution hit a trillion page views this month. Is this news? Probably not. But it just shows the growth of the Facebook channel, and the potential for growth in its ad business. If only it could monetise all those ad impressions. There is more money going into the Facebook channel. I am seeing new FB-buying platforms appearing all the time. And how long before we see a Facebook AdWords business? Not before it jumps through the privacy hoops setup by clueless European legislators.

Digital Media Spend Exploding

Forrester reckons that interactive spend (social, mobile, display and search) will be bigger than TV spend by 2016. These are of course just US figures - because the rest of the world doesn't really count in the grand scheme of things. Griping aside, it looks like digital is powering on - and let's hope everyone will make lots of money. Note to Forrester: is there any chance you could some reports on the European market? We are sorely lacking for decent data over here. Seriously.

Moving Up The Value Chain

In a another piece this week on the state of the ad net, Martini Media's Alex Magnin argues that ad networks should be moving up the value chain to ensure their future viability. To achieve this, he advises ad nets to follow these three strategies:

1) Invest in technology that creates tangible value, such as data-harvesting and ad-targeting engines.
2) Get in the mix with publishers to bring innovative, custom advertising solutions at scale to market.
3) Provide quality assurance in the niche, or long-tail of the web, sites that attract a disproportionate number of people with money and influence.

I like all of those suggestions - particularly the vertical expertise. If I was to pack up the ExchangeWire wagon that's where I'd be heading. Buy a cluster of niche publishers, build my ad network layer in the vertical of choice, and make mad cash.

Interoperability = Scale

Seeing as I am in Germany this week, I think it would be nice to keep a German flavour to this week's ad tech review. YD, the Dutch (now pan-European) exchange trading specialists, has opened a new office in Berlin. The audience-buying offering will now be available to agencies and advertisers in the German. Again why is this news? Well, it's encouraging to see European display start-ups expanding across Europe. I think this will be the start of even more European companies scaling businesses across our horribly fragmented market. The interoperability between country-specific pools of supply is starting to happen - and this is allowing players like Infectious, Mexad, Matiro, Sociomantic, YD, Media IQ, Criteo, Struq et al to trade across pan-European supply. This is an exciting time to be involved in the space here - as the possibilities to grow and scale display-focused businesses is becoming more of a reality every day.