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TECHNOLOGY Saturday 25 March 2017

Google’s YouTube losing major advertisers upset with videos

MICHAEL LIEDTKE
AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
AT&T, Verizon and several
other major advertisers are
suspending their marketing
campaigns on Google’s
YouTube site after discov-
ering their brands have
been appearing alongside
videos promoting terrorism
and other unsavory sub-
jects.
The spreading boycott
confronts Google with a
challenge that threatens
to cost it hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars.
YouTube’s popularity
stems from its massive and
eclectic library of video,
spanning everything from
polished TV clips to raw
diatribes posted by people
bashing homosexuals.
But that diverse selection
periodically allows ads to
appear next to videos that
marketers find distasteful,
despite Google’s efforts to
prevent it from happening.
Google depends largely
on automated programs
to place ads in YouTube
videos because the job is
too much for humans to
handle on their own. About
400 hours of video is now This March 18, 2010, file photo shows the YouTube website in Los Angeles. AT&T, Verizon and several other major advertisers are
posted on YouTube each suspending their marketing campaigns on Google’s YouTube site after discovering their brands have been appearing alongside
minute. videos promoting terrorism and other unsavory subjects.
Earlier this week, Associated Press
Google vowed to step up be able to address adver- content promoting terror- website while it investigates from YouTube ads, but the
its efforts to block ads on tisers’ concerns through ism and hate,” AT&T said in the “weak links” among its research firm eMarketer es-
“hateful, offensive and de- Google’s recent advance- a statement. “Until Google digital advertising partners. timated that the video site
rogatory” videos. ments in artificial intelli- can ensure this won’t hap- Both AT&T and Verizon may accounted for $5.6 billion
“We know that this is un- gence — technology par- pen again, we are remov- have an ulterior motive to that amount. EMarketer
acceptable to the adver- lance for computers that ing our ads from Google’s make YouTube look like projected YouTube’s ad-
tisers and agencies who learn to think like humans. non-search platforms.” an untrustworthy spot for vertising will rise 26 percent
put their trust in us,” Philipp But that promise so far By extending its ban to ev- marketers because both this year to $7 billion, but
Schindler, Google’s chief hasn’t appeased AT&T, Ve- erything beyond Google’s companies are trying to that prediction came be-
business officer, wrote in a rizon Communications and search results, AT&T is also sell more digital ads in their fore marketers began to
Tuesday blog post. an expanding global list effectively pulling its ads own networks. suspend their spending.
As part of Google’s solution of advertisers that includes from more than two mil- YouTube has become one The YouTube boycott be-
to the problem, Schindler Volkswagen, Audi, HSBC lion other websites that de- of the fastest growing parts gan late last week after an
promised to hire “signifi- Holdings, the Royal Bank of pend on Google to deliver of Google’s ad system, investigation by The Times
cant numbers” of employ- Scotland and L’Oreal. ads to their pages. which generated $79 bil- in London revealed the ads
ees to review YouTube vid- “We are deeply concerned In its statement, Verizon lion in revenue last year. of major brands were ap-
eos and flag them as inap- that our ads may have ap- said it decided to pull ads Google doesn’t disclose pearing in videos delving
propriate for ads. He also
predicted YouTube would peared alongside YouTube from YouTube to protect its how much of that came into contentious themes.q