It’s fitting that in this week’s 20 CEOs, Two Questions series, advertising comes in last. Advertising is the most powerful force in the content business and remains the largest funder of not just news and television businesses, but also many of the world’s largest and most powerful companies. Google, Meta, ByteDance and Amazon all have enormously powerful advertising businesses, while Apple, Uber and Netflix are racing to catch up.
Take a look at that list, though: a search and software company, a social media conglomerate, a retail colossus, a device manufacturer, a streamer and a taxi service. Only three of them in the business of paying for content, only one with it as core to its business. This is the ad world now: vastly more complex and global than what it once was, with what was once the least-fashionable part – direct response, such as flyers and coupons – now the undisputed money-making king.
