MAM
Online ad spend to surpass print, TV in Australia by 2013: Study
MUMBAI: For the first time, the advertising spends on online medium will exceed that on television or newspaper by 2013, reports Interactive Advertising Bureau of Australia.
The results, which were announced by IAB Australia in its Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), show that while the general advertising market is softening, online advertising is on track to surpass both newspaper and TV advertising in 2013.
Online advertising has continued to grow, achieving 10 per cent year on year growth recording $813.25 million for the three months ending September 2012, the report said.
When compared to the September 2011 quarter, all three reported sectors grew, with General Display marginally up one per cent, Search and Directories up 15 per cent, and Classifieds advertising up by seven per cent,
IAB Australia CEO Paul Fisher said, “Double digit growth in the media and economic climate of the past 12 months bucks the trend across the broader media industry. While growth has slowed in digital this past quarter the outlook for the Christmas quarter looks encouraging.”
“Our work as an industry to improve online behavioural advertising technology and deliver better audience and campaign measurement tools has resulted in more ‘brand‘ focused online advertising display formats and a clear and growing confidence in the medium by marketers,” Fisher added.
PWC partner Maria Martin said, “While the online advertising sector is settling into strong and sustained growth, it‘s clear that the search by marketers for new ways to engage with consumers is fueling mobile advertising growth rates.”
Mobile advertising recorded $22 million for the September quarter, representing 190 per cent year on year growth and a 24 per cent increase on the June 2012 quarter.
Search and directories continues to dominate the online advertising sector overall with 53 per cent share of spend. Classifieds holds 21 per cent share and General Display 26 per cent market share.
Within General Display, the motor vehicle category grew strongly to be the highest spending in the advertising industry this quarter, with finance and real estate sectors the next largest categories.
The report also showed that the retail share of expenditure reached 7.2 per cent share, up from 6.5 per cent in the previous quarter. In Classifieds, real estate, recruitment and automotive were the leading categories. This is the same order as the prior quarter.
The report undertook new approach for the study. The data collected from industry participants has been supplemented by estimates for Google display, video and mobile advertising as well as Facebook display and mobile advertising, while the prior methodology for estimating Google search has been refined.
Historical mobile advertising data collected from industry participants has been combined with estimated Google mobile advertising to provide a picture of the aggregated mobile advertising market and trends.
Brands
Google completes $32 billion Wiz deal to boost AI and cloud security
Wiz joins Google Cloud but keeps multi-cloud support across rival platforms
NEW YORK: Google has completed its $32 billion acquisition of cloud security company Wiz, marking the biggest deal in the tech giant’s history and signalling a major push to strengthen security in the era of artificial intelligence and multi-cloud computing.
The New York-headquartered cybersecurity firm will join Google Cloud while continuing to operate under the Wiz brand. Crucially, the company will maintain support for multiple cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud, reflecting the reality that most large organisations run their systems across several cloud providers.
Google said the acquisition is designed to help organisations build and scale applications more securely as businesses and governments increasingly move critical systems and data to the cloud. At the same time, the rapid adoption of generative AI has introduced new cybersecurity risks, with attackers also using AI to launch faster and more sophisticated attacks.
Wiz has built a reputation for simplifying cloud security. Its platform maps entire cloud environments, identifying vulnerabilities, potential attack paths and misconfigurations before they can be exploited. By connecting insights from code, cloud infrastructure and runtime environments, it allows security and engineering teams to detect and fix risks early in the development cycle.
Bringing Wiz into Google Cloud will create what the company describes as a unified security platform capable of detecting, preventing and responding to threats across cloud and AI environments. The combined offering will also integrate Google’s own security capabilities, including threat intelligence tools, security operations platforms and the cybersecurity expertise of Mandiant.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the move reflects the growing importance of security as more organisations rely on AI and cloud technologies. “Keeping people safe online has always been part of Google’s mission,” he said, adding that the partnership will help organisations innovate with greater confidence.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, said the goal is to make security an enabler rather than a roadblock for businesses building modern applications. He noted that the combined technologies will simplify the complex task of protecting hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
For Wiz, the acquisition opens the door to global scale while keeping its core philosophy intact. Co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said the company remains committed to an open, multi-cloud approach and will continue supporting customers regardless of where their workloads run.
Over the past year, Wiz has expanded its platform to address emerging risks tied to AI applications, including tools that help organisations monitor AI usage, detect AI-specific vulnerabilities and secure AI workloads during runtime.
With Google’s infrastructure, artificial intelligence capabilities and security ecosystem now behind it, Wiz plans to accelerate development of its platform while continuing to serve enterprises, governments and start-ups operating across different cloud environments.
For Google Cloud, the acquisition adds a powerful piece to its security puzzle as competition intensifies among global cloud providers. For customers, it promises a future where building fast in the cloud does not have to come at the expense of staying secure.
