In 2018, Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook) struck a deal with Google after an internal realization that it couldn’t successfully compete against the tech giant, which held a monopoly over the online display advertising market. This information came to light during a US Justice Department antitrust trial, where Brian Boland, a former Facebook advertising executive, testified about the company’s struggles to challenge Google.
Boland, who led Facebook’s advertising technology from 2009 to 2019, explained that Facebook initially aimed to directly compete with Google in the market for display ads across websites. Facebook’s Audience Network was designed to help marketers run ads not only on Facebook and Instagram but also on other websites and apps. However, by 2017, it became evident that Facebook couldn’t compete effectively due to the massive advantages Google held within its advertising ecosystem.
A 2017 strategy memo noted that Google’s tools allowed it to dominate the marketplace, describing how the search giant was able to "cherry-pick the best supply" of ad impressions. The memo emphasized concerns about Google’s intermediary role between Facebook and advertisers, creating significant obstacles for Facebook’s success.
Boland likened Google’s behavior to picking the best apples out of a crate before others had a chance, leaving competitors with lower-quality leftovers. He elaborated on Google’s practice of having a “last look” in ad auctions, where the company could choose to buy an ad after it was auctioned off, giving itself an unfair advantage.
After months of negotiations, Meta entered into a deal with Google in 2018, an agreement known internally as “Jedi Blue.” This pact gave Facebook preferential treatment when bidding on web or mobile ads via Google’s exchange, benefiting Facebook’s Audience Network. The deal was signed off by both companies' CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google.
The specific terms of the agreement, called the "Network Bidding Agreement," were not fully revealed during the trial. However, court documents indicated that Google asked Facebook to pay 15% of the working media cost in exchange for removing Google’s last look advantage. The deal between the two advertising giants raised concerns among state attorneys general, who filed lawsuits in 2020, accusing Google of monopolistic behavior. They claimed that the agreement violated antitrust law, as it allegedly enticed Facebook to abandon plans for a new technology called header bidding, which could have disrupted Google’s dominance.
Although a New York judge dismissed these claims, ruling there was nothing suspicious about the agreement, European antitrust regulators also investigated but closed the case in March 2022 without taking action. The US Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google last year for monopolizing the advertising technology market did not accuse the agreement of being anticompetitive but highlighted that even a company as large as Meta couldn’t compete against Google’s dominance.
Boland, who left Facebook in 2020, expressed concerns internally about Facebook Audience Network’s slow growth in the online display ad market. Eventually, the project shifted its focus entirely to mobile ads, abandoning its efforts to buy display ads on the web.
This testimony and the details surrounding the deal underscore the challenges even large companies like Meta face when trying to compete in markets dominated by a single player like Google, raising critical questions about fair competition and the balance of power in the tech industry.