Let’s not sugarcoat it.

They owned the pipes, the water, the spigot, and the guy who hands you the bill. And for a while, everyone just accepted it. Publishers bent the knee. Agencies grumbled under their breath. Regulators blinked in confusion. The rest of us? We were too busy chasing crumbs of revenue in Google’s walled garden to question the architecture of the entire estate.

But 2025? It’s the year the walls cracked.

On April 17, a U.S. federal judge finally confirmed what every adtech exec has been screaming into their non-compete for years: Google illegally monopolized the ad stack. Specifically, its dual ownership of both the publisher ad server (DFP) and the ad exchange (AdX) created a feedback loop of anti-competitive magic tricks that made Google the house, the dealer, and the only guy allowed to cash out.

And the DOJ—of all unlikely heroes—brought the receipts. The court’s ruling wasn’t vague. It wasn’t hedged. It wasn’t politely worded in the way Silicon Valley lawyers have grown accustomed to. It was brutal. Tying practices? Illegal. Preferencing its own auctions? Illegal. Gaslighting the entire ecosystem into believing this was “efficiency”? You guessed it—illegal.

Across the pond, the EU—never one to be out-regulated—is now ratcheting up its own demands. The DSA isn’t a memo. It’s a guillotine. And while American companies tend to laugh off European regulators as polite, beret-wearing bureaucrats, these regulators are building the blueprint for global compliance. Every headline in Brussels sends panic-induced Slack threads through Google’s legal department in Mountain View.

So, what now?

The simple answer: the power balance is shifting. For real this time.

Google’s ad stack is no longer untouchable.
Once the de facto default on every media plan, it’s now just one of many options. And not always the preferred one. Agencies are diversifying. Publishers are exploring. Retail media is exploding. And the next generation of clean, compliant, high-performance platforms? They’re not coming. They’re already here.

Let’s talk contenders.

The Trade Desk is no longer “the alternative.” It’s the standard-bearer of post-Google adtech. Armed with Unified ID 2.0, it’s built an identity framework that actually works—and doesn’t require violating every privacy law in existence. They’ve inked deals with retailers, broadcasters, and data partners that give them signal density Google would kill for. Oh, and they’re still independent, which means they don’t play favorites or funnel you into a dark room of biased inventory.

Amazon Retail Media is a beast. The kind that doesn’t just track conversions—it owns them. While the rest of the industry is still debating cleanrooms, Amazon is serving personalized ads on Prime Video based on what you bought this morning with same-day shipping. They’ve combined commerce, media, and attribution in a way that’s both terrifying and brilliant—and brands are throwing budget at it like it’s 2019 all over again.

Disney’s Cleanroom Ecosystem? It’s the unexpected power move of the year. With Disney Compass, AWS Clean Rooms, and integration into The Trade Desk and Amazon DSP, the Mouse House is running a masterclass in privacy-safe targeting. Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+—they’re not just streaming platforms. They’re data-rich, tightly controlled ecosystems where advertisers can fuse emotional storytelling with behavioral intent. Oh, and they’re doing it without leaking a single PII pixel. Imagine that.

So here we are:
A new power map is emerging, and it’s not centered in Mountain View anymore. It’s distributed. It’s modular. It’s consent-based, privacy-respectful, and—most shockingly—effective.

Let’s draw the battle lines:

And what about Google?

It’s still big. Still powerful. Still operating at a scale most platforms can’t even dream of. But it’s no longer invincible. The playbook has changed. The fear is gone. The aura of inevitability has worn off like expired SPF under a Cannes sun.

The takeaways are brutal and beautiful:

And that’s just the power shift.

In Part 2 we’ll dissect how the agency world is eating itself alive in the name of “streamlining”—and why boutique shops might be quietly winning the future.

Part 3 takes us into the trenches of privacy and compliance, where those with the right data ethics are turning regulation into revenue.

Part 4 cracks open identity and measurement in a post-cookie, post-cohort world—where your campaign depends more on retail partnerships and cleanroom math than on third-party hacks.

Part 5 pulls back the curtain on brand safety and trust—why the biggest advertisers are setting the rules, building the standards, and walking away from platforms that can’t keep up.

It’s an intense look at the second half of 2025.

And yeah, it’s behind a paywall. Because good journalism—and brutal honesty—still has a price tag.

Want in? Join ADOTAT+. We’re not here to sell fluff.

We’re here to name names, follow the money, and shine the spotlight where others won’t.

Stay bold. Stay curious. And know more than you did yesterday.

According to Ari Paparo, the former DoubleClick executive and Beeswax founder, the real origin of Google’s adtech dominance wasn’t search—it was infrastructure. When Google acquired DoubleClick in 2008, it gained control over the ad serving technology used by most major publishers. That technology, now known as Google Ad Manager, gave Google access to critical market data—like what a winning bid would be—across 90% of the web.

Paparo describes Google’s system as closed-loop control:

With control over both supply and demand—and the data in between—Google didn’t just participate in the market. It owned it.

Paparo stops short of calling Google’s behavior evil. But through interviews with over 70 insiders, he documents a culture of manipulation, gaslighting, and quiet market rigging. From inflating bids on one side to suppressing them on the other, Google routinely tilted the field without disclosing its actions to advertisers or publishers.

Now the fallout is here:

Paparo believes this isn’t just a legal battle—it’s a reset moment. If successful, these cases could finally allow competition to flourish, new adtech innovation to emerge, and publishers to escape a system where, for too long, the house always won.

“It’s not just about breaking up Google,” Paparo writes. “It’s about breaking open the market.”