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Google's Cookie Delay Upends an Entire Cookie Replacement Industry

Mike Shields

Earlier this year, I spoke to an investor on my podcast about where he was excited about looking to place bets in 2024. 

His take - any startup or mid sized company that was building solutions for the cookie-less world.

That looked like a smart bet until just a few days ago, when (uh-oh) Google announced it was delaying the end of cookies once again, until maybe 2025. While this might be a relief to certain factions, like say, small publishers, what happens to all these upstarts and existing ad-tech companies that build their entire product suite - or at least their marketing messaging - around providing the solution for the cookieless web? What happens to the long rumored/hoped comeback for contextual targeting?

The countdown to cookie deprecation has created almost a cottage industry of companies and experts offering fixes. Does everyone need to repivot? What does the Trade Desk - champion of the open web and anti-Google crusader - do next? Can digital advertising actually just go back to the way it used to be?

The back half of this year just got all that much messier and uncertain, except for the walled gardens - who aren't waiting around for a new cookie alternative - and retail media firms.

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