Four of Europe’s largest telecom operators—Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone—have formed a joint venture, which will see them develop their own digital advertising platform.
The initiative was presented to the European Union’s antitrust watchdog Jan. 6 with the aim of creating a “jointly controlled, full-function” digital advertising platform with each owning each share.
This would allow the companies to compete with major tech businesses such as Apple, Google, Amazon and Meta’s digital advertising businesses. The initiative is reported to have begun development last year and is seen by the organizations as a potential alternative to third-party cookies, which Google aims to phase out in 2024.
According to the EU’s notice on the proposal, the platform will aim to offer “a privacy-led digital identification solution to support the digital marketing and advertising activities of brands and publishers.”
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