Episode 182: Brian Quinn from AppsFlyer on the Billion Dollar Investment from Google and Meta

Independent measurement remains the critical infrastructure for the modern mobile economy, as evidenced by AppsFlyer’s recent $1 billion funding round from strategic partners including Google, Meta, and Unity. This capital injection underscores a collective industry push to maintain neutral, third-party attribution in an ecosystem dominated by walled gardens. Beyond measurement, the ad tech landscape faces ongoing challenges with last-click attribution, which continues to incentivize fraudulent practices such as those recently alleged against the shopping plugin Fia. Meanwhile, the broader market is grappling with a 40% quarter-over-quarter decline in publisher ad supply, even as CPMs rise. Disagreements persist regarding the future of AI-driven advertising revenue, with analysts questioning the aggressive growth projections of companies like OpenAI, while advertisers increasingly demand cross-platform visibility to connect CTV exposure with tangible business results.