AD TECH COMPETITION
ShareChat’s FY26 revenue jumps 40% to Rs 1,016 crore on microdrama push; net loss widens
However, its loss before tax widened to Rs 1,978 crore in FY26 from Rs 1,105 crore in the previous year, largely due to higher accounting expenses related to its convertible debt instruments, forex losses and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), cofounder and CFO Manohar Singh Charan told ET.
Meta halts new business terms after backlash over data scraping and AI use
Meta has postponed the rollout of new terms affecting its business accounts due to significant backlash. Critics claimed these changes could lead to unauthorized data scraping and unfair competition against news publishers. A Norwegian court granted an injunction on the terms, highlighting concerns over Meta's market dominance. The U.K. competition authority has also initiated an investigation into these new business conditions.
Big Tech earnings a test of the AI boom amid market turmoil
Investors are pressing for evidence that the AI boom can deliver swift returns to justify its enormous price tag. Rising bond yields at AI cloud providers such as CoreWeave and record costs to insure Meta Platform's debt have amplified concerns about how the massive AI infrastructure buildout is being funded, particularly as higher US interest rates loom.
Eternal’s strong Q2 report; Exits outpace hiring at top IT firms
Happy Thursday! Eternal’s Q2 revenue surged on Blinkit’s growth. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
The Comeback of the Physical Store—and What It Means for Your Business
Brick-and-mortar retail is not declining but evolving, as stores take on new roles as logistics hubs, experiential destinations, and powerful drivers of demand and brand equity. Rising digital acquisition costs and operational challenges are pushing companies to integrate physical and online channels, using stores to improve fulfillment, customer engagement, and marketing effectiveness. The broader lesson for leaders: assets once viewed as liabilities can become competitive advantages when their role is reimagined and aligned with changing economics and customer behavior.
Lessons from Chinese AI Firms on Owning Customers’ Habits
As U.S. AI firms compete in an escalating race for superior models, bigger benchmarks, and more advanced features, Chinese companies are pursuing a fundamentally different strategy: embedding AI into users’ everyday habits. The authors argue that this “habit moat” approach may prove more durable than competing on raw capability alone. Whereas Western firms position AI as a destination consumers consciously visit, companies like Alibaba integrate AI into existing routines such as shopping, payments, food delivery, and travel booking, reducing friction until using AI becomes automatic behavior. Once AI capabilities become “good enough,” marginal technical improvements matter less than becoming the default path through recurring customer tasks. The authors outline four strategic imperatives for Western leaders: focus on behavioral cues rather than feature gaps, subsidize customer behavior instead of subscriptions, embed AI invisibly into existing workflows, and optimize for repeat usage rather than first-time adoption. The central warning is stark: AI may not replace employees first—it may instead capture the critical customer moments businesses currently own.
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Republicans have a billion-dollar answer to Trump's weak midterm polling
Republican groups are dramatically outspending Democrats in several key Senate and House races, deploying hundreds of millions of dollars in outside advertising as the party tries to defend vulnerable seats ahead of the midterms. But the financial advantage may not fully offset voter concerns over inflation, fuel prices and Donald Trump’s economic record.
Google should relax ad tech rules, appoint antitrust monitor, US judge finds
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, gave her assessment in a decision unsealed on Wednesday, two weeks after she rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's insistence that Google break up its business of placing ads across the internet.
Texas Republicans turn against data centers, putting Big Tech on notice
In a surprising turn, Republican leaders are now standing against data center projects due to increasing public resistance. This development coincides with a surge of support for Democrats from local communities opposing such facilities. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has advocated for tighter restrictions on data centers. Big tech firms are investing heavily to combat unfavorable public opinion, highlighting the emerging political divide among Republicans.
Sugar’s valuation slump; Slice takes a hit
Happy Friday! A91 Partners is backing Sugar Cosmetics in a round that will see the beauty brand’s valuation fall sharply. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Uber layoffs impact India; RMG ban, a year on
Happy Thursday! Uber is cutting jobs in India as part of a sweeping global restructuring. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.
Google defeats US bid to force ad tech sale
While the ad exchange is a small part of Google's business, the ruling is the second powerful symbolic victory against the U.S. Department of Justice in its efforts to force Google to sell assets to address illegal monopolies.
Amazon sued by US FTC, 22 states over alleged $20 billion ad auction overcharges
The US FTC and 22 states have sued Amazon, alleging it manipulated digital advertising auctions and overcharged about 1.2 million customers by more than $20 billion. Amazon rejected the allegations as misguided and flawed. The lawsuit targets Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display, intensifying scrutiny of the tech giant.
Winners of the ET Startup Awards 2026; Groww vs Zerodha
Groww won the top prize at the 12th edition of the Economic Times Startup Awards. The list of other winners, and more, in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Google aims to dodge breakup of ad business as antitrust trial wraps
Google has so far come away largely unscathed from a bipartisan government legal crackdown on the dominance of Big Tech - a push that began during the first term of President Donald Trump.
Landmark ruling: Judge delivers blow to Google, declares its ad empire an illegal monopoly that caused widespread harm to digital consumers
Google ad monopoly just took a major legal hit. A U.S. federal judge ruled that Google illegally dominates the digital advertising market, calling its actions harmful to publishers, rivals, and consumers. The court found Google violated antitrust laws by controlling both the ad server and ad exchange systems. With Alphabet shares falling and the Justice Department pushing for a breakup of its ad empire, this ruling could reshape how online ads work forever.
Canada accuses Google of creating an adtech monopoly
Canada's competition authority has accused Google of abusing its online advertising tools to create a monopoly. They have filed a complaint to force Google to sell two advertising technology services. The authority alleges Google's practices prevent competition. They seek to fine Google up to 3% of its worldwide revenues and stop anti-competitive conduct.
How Google defended itself in the ad tech antitrust trial
The government last week concluded its main arguments in the case, US et al. v. Google, which was filed last year and accuses Google of building a monopoly over the technology that places ads on websites around the internet.
Google offered to sell part of ad tech business, not enough for EU publishers
Google's offer to sell its AdX advertising marketplace to end an EU antitrust investigation was rejected by European publishers as insufficient. The EU may order Google to stop anti-competitive practices instead of divesting assets for now. Google's ad tech business is under scrutiny after a complaint from the European Publishers Council.
YouTube CEO says Google faces plenty of ad tech competition
Mohan's testimony kicked off the second week of a trial over the Justice Department's allegations that Google has a monopoly on the advertising technology market. Mohan, who joined Google as part of its acquisition of advertising software company DoubleClick in 2008, said the search giant faced ample competition in the ad tech market.
UK watchdog accuses Google of anti-competitive behaviour in digital ads business
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority said that the US company gives preference to its own services to the detriment of online publishers and advertisers in Britain's 1.8 billion pound (USD 2.4 billion) digital ad market.
Google abusing power over website ads, UK regulator says
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it believed Google was using anti-competitive practices in open display ad tech through the preference of its own ad exchange, which could be harming thousands of British publishers and advertisers. Google said it disagreed with the CMA's view and would respond accordingly.
Tribunal rules $17 billion UK adtech lawsuit against Google can go ahead
The lawsuit, which seeks damages on behalf of publishers of websites and apps based in the United Kingdom, is the latest case to focus on the search giant's business practices.
Google fights $17 billion UK lawsuit over adtech practices
The lawsuit seeks damages of up to 13.6 billion pounds ($16.9 billion) on behalf of publishers of websites and apps based in the United Kingdom, who say they have suffered losses due to Google's allegedly anticompetitive behaviour.
Google’s ad tech in peril as EU joins US’s breakup bandwagon
The European Commission last week joined the Department of Justice in touting a breakup as a viable remedy for the California-based tech giant’s alleged monopoly abuses.
US court allows mega antitrust case against Google to proceed
According to a Wall Street Journal report in July, Google offered the US government to split its ad-tech business into a separate entity under the Alphabet umbrella, to avoid an antitrust lawsuit.
Facebook owner Meta makes antitrust commitments over online advertising
Meta has committed to giving access over a five-year period to advertising inventories and campaign data to so-called advertising technology companies on transparent, objective and predictable conditions, the French regulator said.
Australian regulator aims to rein in Google's advertising power
The stance could set up another clash between policymakers and the US search engine leader after the same regulator helped design reforms implemented this year to force tech giants to pay for media content displayed on their platforms.
EU investigates Google's conduct in digital adtech sector
The European Commission said Tuesday that it has opened a formal investigation into whether Google violated the bloc's competition rules by favouring its own online display advertising technology services at the expense of rival publishers
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