After a difficult period in 2023, the esports industry bounced back in 2024.

Over the past year, esports league operators such as Blast and ESL/FACEIT Group developed closer ties with publishers, allowing them to scale up their business and become profitable; publishers stepped up their revenue share programs, helping some teams achieve stability; and, perhaps most importantly, brands and marketers upped their spending in the space, encouraged by the rise of international events such as the Esports World Cup.

If 2023 was esports winter — a time of austerity caused by brands pulling back on their marketing spend in the space — then 2024 marked the beginning of esports spring, or at least somewhat of a thaw. As advertisers once again opened their wallets for esports inventory, the entire industry breathed a collective sigh of relief. However, esports is not yet a standard category in advertising spend forecasts, and it’s unclear exactly what proportion of brands’ gaming marketing dollars went towards the competitive side of the space over the past year. For now, tales of the recovery of esports in 2024 remain largely anecdotal.

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Standardized metrics across every site. 
Insights on insights with data so bright.
Incrementality to justify spend.
Data points we can share with all our friends! 
These are a few of advertisers’ favorite things! 

2024 was the year that kept on giving in terms of retail media network expansion. New players entered the space creating everything from financial media networks to travel media networks. Walmart became a breakout star and RMN ad spend surged. 

Still, there are a few things that marketers and advertisers would ask for if Santa were accepting RMN-related wishlists. Digiday talked to four retail media experts about what they’d like to see come out of the retail media boom. Here’s what they said: 

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Hold on tight. The rollercoaster that was 2024 is finally coming to an end.

Marketers may find themselves dizzy from the many ups and downs the industry experienced this year. 2024 saw more ads on streaming platforms, but also an ad price correction that favored ad buyers’ wallets. There was also the generative AI boom (or bauble, depending on who you ask). Of course, there was Google’s long kiss goodnight with third-party cookies, in which the tech giant decided to keep cookies after all but let users decide if they want to opt in or not. And who could forget the 2024 presidential election, the gift that kept on giving to news publishers. 

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The biggest online dating companies are in crisis, as women and younger users look elsewhere, towards niche sites or real-life meets

Funding for edtech companies hits decade low as sector struggles to compete post-pandemic

AI could build a better future — but not without proliferating spam-like, low-grade content first

Research highlights impact of poor network performance on consumers

The fastest object ever built by humans will fly within a whisker of the sun today.

After weeks of speculation, Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has closed a massive $6 billion Series C funding round. This latest investment includes high-profile names like A16Z, Blackrock, and Fidelity Management & Research Company. Other notable backers include Kingdom Holdings, […]

The post xAI closes $6 billion in Series C funding from A16Z, Blackrock, Sequoia, NVIDIA, and others first appeared on Tech Startups.

The preserved remains of a juvenile mammoth are being studied by scientists after it was discovered in thawing permafrost after more than 50,000 years.

Make a list and check it twice before boarding that plane or hopping in that car—and be ready to hit the ground running when you arrive.

Hyundai said Monday it will send customers who have bought or leased an EV before January 31 a free charging adapter that will let them access Tesla’s supercharging network. The Hyundai-authorized adapter will give CCS-port-equipped Hyundai EV drivers access to more than 20,000 Tesla Superchargers in the United States, according to Hyundai. Free adapters will […]

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The year is almost over, but the team behind the popular fitness and wellness app Gentler Streak still had a few cards up their sleeve for 2024. The latest update to the app adds improvements to health metrics, as well as the long-awaited Activity Recap 2024.

more…

Social media companies must face tough sanctions if they fail to keep children safe from harmful content, the technology secretary has said.

Last month, AI founders and investors told TechCrunch that we’re now in the “second era of scaling laws,” noting how established methods of improving AI models were showing diminishing returns. One promising new method they suggested could keep gains was “test-time scaling,” which seems to be what’s behind the performance of OpenAI’s o3 model — […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday it finalized an order (pdf) requiring Marriott International and subsidiary Starwood Hotels to improve their digital security, reports BleepingComputer. The FTC charged the companies with lax security practices that resulted in three big breaches detected in 2015, 2018, and 2020, “affecting more than 344 million customers worldwide,” leaking passport details, payment cards, and other info.

The shortest breach lasted 14 months before it was detected, while the longest one saw attackers maintain access for four years, starting in 2018. The beefed-up security programs they've agreed to establish include creating policies to only keep information for as long as it’s needed and publishing a link allowing US customers to request the deletion of information tied to their email address or loyalty account.

Hotels have been one of many key targets for hackers, with one breach last year catching FTC Chair Lina Khan among the many people left waiting to check in when a ransomware attack forced MGM Resorts to fall back on using pen and paper.

The FTC announced its charges in October, accusing the companies of having “deceived consumers” with false claims of “reasonable and appropriate data security.” Their alleged failures included having bad password and firewall practices and not patching outdated software and systems. The same day the FTC revealed the charges, the Connecticut Attorney General’s office announced Marriott had agreed to a $52 million settlement.

Beyond improving their security, the companies are now forbidden “from misrepresenting how they collect, maintain, use, delete or disclose consumers’ personal information; and the extent to which the companies protect the privacy, security, availability, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information.” Other requirements include that they keep compliance records and submit to FTC inspections. The order will stay in effect for 20 years.

Garmin may be best known for its hardcore fitness watches, but it’s got an extensive line of lifestyle offerings, too.

Read the full story at The Verge.

The PayPal Honey browser extension is, in theory, a handy way to find better deals on products while you’re shopping online. But in a video published this weekend, YouTuber MegaLag claims the extension is a “scam” and that Honey has been “stealing money from influencers, including the very ones they paid to promote their product.”

Honey works by popping up an offer to find coupon codes for you while you’re checking out in an online shop. But as MegaLag notes, it frequently fails to find a code, or offers a Honey-branded one, even if a simple internet search will cover something better. The Honey website’s pitch is that it will “find every working promo code on the internet.” But according to MegaLag’s video, ignoring better deals is a feature of Honey’s partnerships with its retail clients.

MegaLag also says Honey will hijack affiliate revenue from influencers. According to MegaLag, if you click on an affiliate link from an influencer, Honey will then swap in its own tracking link when you interact with its deal pop-up at check-out. That’s regardless of whether Honey found you a coupon or not, and it results in Honey getting the credit for the sale, rather than the YouTuber or website whose link led you there.

Paypal VP of corporate communications Josh Criscoe said in an email to The Verge that “Honey follows industry rules and practices, including last-click attribution.”

MegaLag isn’t the first to make such claims. A 2021 Twitter post advises using Honey’s discount codes in a different browser to avoid it taking the affiliate credit. A Linus Media Group employee also explained in a 2022 forum reply that Linus Tech Tips dropped Honey as a sponsor over its affiliate link practices.

Honey’s convenience has resulted in the extension being recommended widely, including in almost 5,000 Honey-sponsored videos across about 1,000 YouTube channels, according to MegaLag. We’ve even recommended it here at The Verge; now we do not.

Here is Criscoe’s full statement:

Honey is free to use and provides millions of shoppers with additional savings on their purchases whenever possible. Honey helps merchants reduce cart abandonment and comparison shopping while increasing sales conversion.

Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, and Lupita Nyong’o star.

A.J. Beckles and Abby Trott dish on voicing the lovestruck teens at the center of 2024's surprise shonen hit.