Digital publishers eye exit from Google's mobile Web approach - WSJ
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A number of large digital publishers are exploring moving away from a mobile Web approach pushed by Google (GOOG, GOOGL), suggesting it's generating less advertising revenue for them, the WSJ notes.
Companies including Vox Media, Complex Networks (NASDAQ:BZFD) and Bustle Digital Group are testing or considering their own mobile-optimized article pages, a departure from Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages - hosted on Google's servers as a move to speed mobile loading, but which has made publishers slightly more reliant on Google.
Google's AMP was introduced in 2015, and it drew mention in the 2020 antitrust lawsuit from state attorneys general, which alleged the AMP pages were designed to make it harder for ads to be auctioned anywhere but on Google's exchange.
Publishers have argued that moving away from AMP for mobile Web experiences would give them more control and also ease and boost ad sales through header bidding, which takes up more data and slows pages on AMP.
Google says AMP is still a helpful way for sites that don't even have large digital teams to build a great mobile Web experience, but publishers are looking to the prospect of 20% greater advertising revenue on non-AMP pages at similar speeds.
The Washington Post made its departure from the AMP program last summer.