Season 7, Episode 18: Understanding Amazon's advertising advantages (with Adam Epstein)

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Peter Stuart, the co-founder of Velora, an AI operating system for specialist publishers. Peter returns to the podcast to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in journalism and to explore how editorial teams are integrating these tools into their daily operations. Among other things, we cover:How AI tools like LLMs can effectively augment journalistic research and fact-checking processes without compromising editorial integrityIf the increasing efficiency of AI content pipelines will ultimately diminish the perceived value of human-led investigative reportingWhy some media organizations remain hesitant to integrate AI while others aggressively leverage it for content curation and distributionWhen the line between AI-assisted writing and pure machine generation becomes indistinguishable to the average consumer of digital newsHow AI platforms can help journalists reclaim time for high-value reporting by automating mundane administrative and formatting tasksThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:SpotifyYouTubeApple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Adam Epstein, the co-founder and CEO of Gigi, to talk about Amazon’s strategic advertising advantages. Among other things, we discuss:The value of Amazon’s deterministic identity spine, which spans ninety percent of US householdsWhether Amazon can successfully transition its e-commerce data dominance into non-endemic categories like automotive and pharmaceutical servicesThe risks faced by independent demand side platforms like Trade Desk as tech giants internalize inventoryWhat role agencies will play in a future where AI agents manage cross-channel programmatic media buying autonomouslyWhen shoppable TV transitions from a niche consumer behavior to a primary driver of performance marketing resultsHow the integration of Amazon’s retail data with AI chatbots might permanently displace traditional search-based product discoveryThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:SpotifyYouTubeApple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Danny Frankel, the founder of Punchup Live, a digital platform and ticketing ecosystem built for stand-up comedians. We explore how the economics of content distribution and audience building are being fundamentally rewritten. Danny provides a unique perspective on the shifting landscape of social media, the rise of clipping farms, and the digitization of live entertainment markets. Among other things, we discuss:How clipping farms and Discord communities are distorting organic distribution algorithms for independent creators across social media platformsWhether the extreme efficiency of AI-driven content recommendation engines is leading to user burnout and eventual platform rejectionWhy the traditional touring model is inverted for comedians compared to musicians and how that affects audience building strategiesWhat the phenomenon of blue dot fever reveals about shifting consumer behavior and transparency in the secondary ticketing marketIf the current fragmentation of the live entertainment ecosystem prevents artists from accurately predicting and capturing true market demandHow the lack of audience portability across major social platforms forces creators to adopt direct-to-fan communication tools like emailWhen the innovator's dilemma will force legacy platforms to choose between advertiser needs and the long-term health of creatorsThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Prosperous Society is a podcast series by Mobile Dev Memo that articulates an AI Bull Thesis for the digital economy. It argues that the pervasive application of AI to the digital economy will be broadly economically expansionary, leading to increased individual prosperity, expanded consumer choice, and greater human agency.In Episode 4, the conclusion to the series, I outline the AI-enabled flywheel to the Prosperous Society and make the case that it results in a more differentiated, more personalized, and economically expansive new digital economy:AI increases productive possibility, andAdvertising increases matching precision, andMatching precision increases specificity, andSpecificity increases expressive individuality, soSociety becomes more differentiated, not less.But I also consider the existence of an acceptable boundary for this personalization. At what point do siloed, wholly unique digital experiences become corrosive to social cohesion? And how should that boundary inform the investments that are currently being made into AI infrastructure, such that they are put to the best possible use?Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:SpotifyYouTubeApple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Julian Togelius, a professor of computer science at NYU and director of the NYU Game Innovation Lab. We delve into how games serve as the perfect sandbox for AI development, the potential for generative tools to revolutionize production workflows, and how the future of play might involve infinite, procedurally generated worlds that adapt to every player's unique style. Among other things, we discuss:How AI researchers leverage the inherent fun and learning mechanisms within video game environmentsWhether the financial markets function as a complex game requiring the same reinforcement learning strategies used in digital playIf consumer backlash against AI-generated assets will ultimately give way to the promise of faster and more ambitious development cyclesWhat possibilities exist for truly open-ended games that utilize real-time world generation to create infinite, personalized player journeysHow the role of the game developer shifts toward system architecture and critical thinking as coding becomes increasingly automatedWhen and if world models will transition from impressive tech demos to foundational tools for interactive entertainmentThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Phil Black, one of the co-hosts of the Game Economist Cast, a podcast dedicated to game economy design, and a consultant with Game Economist Consulting. Previously, Phil held game economist and analytics roles at Amazon Games, DICE, and Scopely. Phil is also a panelist on the This Week in Games (TWIG) podcast. Phil joins me on this episode to examine the shifting dynamics of the mobile gaming economy, from the consolidation of high-revenue genres to the strategic adoption of AI and direct-to-consumer models. Among other things, we discuss:How the concentration of mobile gaming revenue into puzzle and 4X genres reshapes the competitive landscape for independent developersWhether the integration of hyper-casual mechanics into core loops represents a fundamental evolution of the modern mobile gaming economyWhy the transition from visual AI outputs to deep personalization remains the primary value proposition for future game monetizationWhat the divergence between Android and iOS installation gates reveals about the health of the global mobile marketing ecosystemIf the rise of third-party web shops and direct-to-consumer models can effectively counteract the platform fees of major storesHow the emergence of warbonds and sampling-based monetization strategies signals a shift away from traditional battle pass reward structuresWhen the mobile gaming industry will move beyond post-ATT recovery strategiesThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:YouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Andrew Lipsman to discuss the evolving landscape of agentic commerce and retail media. Andrew is an independent analyst and consultant who runs the Media, Ads + Commerce blog, which covers the retail media landscape. Prior to this, Andrew held roles at eMarketer and comScore. This is Andrew's third appearance on the podcast.In our conversation, Andrew and I take stock of the evolution of the concept of agentic commerce since we last spoke six months ago, moving from the initial hype of autonomous AI agents to a more grounded reality of AI-assisted shopping experiences. Our conversation examines the failure of independent instant checkout experiments, the strength of established retail ecosystems like Amazon and Walmart, and the emerging opportunities in performance television and in-store digital advertising. Among other things, we discuss:Whether the failure of instant checkout experiments signals a permanent preference for direct retailer relationships over AI intermediariesHow the paradox of choice and the need for basket building hinder the efficiency of single-option agentic transactionsIf the success of Amazon's Rufus proves that AI utility belongs on retail platforms rather than independent LLM interfacesWhy the western market's fragmented ecosystem makes the development of a Chinese-style shopping super app highly improbableWhat the massive investment in AI infrastructure means for the competitive landscape against established giants like Amazon and GoogleWhen performance TV and in-store retail media will finally become a core priority for brand-focused chief marketing officersHow Shopify's role as an audience network might evolve as direct-to-consumer brands seek diversification beyond Meta and GoogleThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:YouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify

The Prosperous Society is a podcast series by Mobile Dev Memo that articulates an AI Bull Thesis for the digital economy. It argues that the pervasive application of AI to the digital economy will be broadly economically expansionary, leading to increased individual prosperity, expanded consumer choice, and greater human agency.In Episode 3, I make the case that artificial intelligence stands to erode the Pareto Principle as it applies to production, as AI-enabled distribution efficiencies will enable firms to reach niche, specific audiences profitably. This will result in a wider diversity of goods being produced, creating a compounding effect on economic expansion and allowing consumers to better explore and define their own preferences and tastes.Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:SpotifyYouTubeApple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Dan Taylor, the Vice President of Global Ads at Google. We discuss the profound impact of generative AI on search behavior and the technological evolution required to support the next era of digital advertising. Among other things, we discuss:How the shift from keyword-based search to conversational intent will redefine the core mechanics of performance marketing attributionWhether the increased monetization of long-tail conversational queries can offset the potential traffic loss for traditional web publishersWhat role LLM-based ad ranking plays in reducing irrelevant placements and improving the overall efficiency of digital campaignsIf the consolidation of advertising tools into automated systems like Performance Max represents the final end of manual controlWhy the emergence of universal commerce protocols might eventually allow AI agents to handle the entire checkout process autonomouslyHow the return to marketing mix modeling and first-party data signals a broader renaissance in rigorous measurement techniquesThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:YouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Ben Sperry, a senior scholar at the International Center for Law and Economics, to explore the shifting landscape of social media litigation. We dive deep into recent court rulings in California and New Mexico that challenge the historical protections of Section 230 by focusing on product design rather than hosted content (see a recent piece by Ben, "Treating Speech as a Bug, Not a Feature," for more background). Among other things, we discuss:Why the shift from content-based liability to product design claims might permanently dismantle the protections afforded by Section 230How the threat of punitive damages may force platforms to implement aggressive age-gating and collateral censorship measuresWhether applying product liability standards to algorithmic recommendation features creates friction with First Amendment principlesWhether smaller tech entrants and startups can survive a legal environment defined by constant litigation and high compliance costsWhat the recent jury verdicts against Meta and Google signal for the future of algorithmic curation across the broader internet ecosystemWhen the focus on addictive design features like infinite scroll will begin to impact other services like streaming platformsHow generative AI and large language models will be categorized under speech laws if Section 230 remains inapplicableThanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming backInterested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.