The platform expects the unit to reach an annualised run rate of about $100 million in the next fiscal year, according to a source familiar with the plan.

The Microsoft-owned company introduced BrandWorks internally in March 2026. Since then, the team has expanded by roughly 60%, with new hires coming from TikTok, Meta and X.

It now focuses on building higher-performing campaigns for enterprise clients, including SAP, IBM and ServiceNow.

BrandWorks also runs programmes that link advertisers with creators. One of them, Top Voices 360, supports sponsored content partnerships and has generated over $20 million between May 2025 and May 2026.

“We’re developing services that are designed to meet the marketer where they are,” said Alex Josephson, vice president of BrandWorks, who previously built a similar offering called Twitter Next.

LinkedIn is enhancing its focus in B2B advertising, even as it competes with much larger companies in digital ads. Its advertising business brought in $8.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to rise to $9.7 billion in 2026, with a further increase to $11.3 billion expected in 2027.

Even with that growth, LinkedIn is still smaller than Meta and Google in overall ad scale. Still, it has carved out a strong niche, with about 80% of B2B marketing budgets now flowing into search and social platforms.

“We estimate that 80% of B2B budgets go into search and social media, with Google and LinkedIn the primary beneficiaries of those B2B dollars,” said Luke Stillman, managing director at trend advisory firm Madison and Wall.

LinkedIn’s ad footprint is also expanding in relative terms. It accounts for about 3.2% of US digital ad spend, 2.4% in the UK, and less than 2% across markets such as Brazil, France, Canada and Germany.

Video has become an important part of its strategy. The company reports that vertical video uploads rose by 36% in 2025. CEO video posts have also increased by 68% over the past two years.

Younger users are driving some of that transition. LinkedIn says Gen Z is its fastest-growing audience, with higher engagement in video content and creator-led posts.

BrandWorks by LinkedIn also supports BrandLink, a video-focused advertising programme. The company expects BrandLink revenue to nearly triple in the current fiscal year, although it has not disclosed the base figure.

The research firm predicts Meta will generate $243.46 billion in net advertising revenue in 2026. That would put it just ahead of Google, which is projected to bring in $239.54 billion over the same period.

Meta’s ad business is expected to expand by 24.1% this year, up from 22.1% in 2025. Google’s growth, by contrast, is forecast to hold steady at 11.9%.

Focusing on automated advertising tools is enhancing Meta’s Advantage+ suite, which has gained traction among advertisers who want quicker campaign setup and better returns on spending. 

That demand is helping the company pull in more marketing budgets at a time when brands are watching costs closely.

“In ⁠surpassing Google, Meta has essentially had many of its core ⁠strategies validated,” said Max Willens, principal analyst at Emarketer.

Added to this, Meta has also expanded its ad footprint in recent years. It introduced advertising on WhatsApp and Threads, opening new inventory for marketers. At the same time, Instagram Reels is competing in the short-video space, where TikTok and YouTube Shorts are already strong.

Meanwhile, Google still earns from a mix of businesses, including subscriptions such as YouTube Premium. That spread provides stability, but it may also slow how quickly its ad revenue grows compared with Meta’s more focused push.

The market is concentrated. Emarketer expects Google, Meta and Amazon to account for 62.3% of global digital ad spending in 2026.

Smaller platforms are likely to feel more pressure if ad budgets tighten. Analysts say companies such as Snap and Pinterest are more exposed when advertisers shift spending towards larger, established platforms.

Emarketer noted that recent court rulings involving Meta and YouTube were not included in its projections and are not expected to significantly change the outlook.

The company said users on paid plans like Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education, will not see adverts. 

The test applies only to logged-in users and is not running for accounts linked to people under 18.

OpenAI said the ads are clearly marked and kept separate from responses, also noting that they do not change how ChatGPT answers questions and advertisers cannot see user conversations or personal details. 

Only overall figures, such as how many people viewed or clicked an advert, are shared.

In a statement, the company said: “Ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you, and we keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers.”

The aim is to support free and low-cost access by helping to cover the cost of running the service. Individuals who do not want to see ads can upgrade to a paid plan or opt out on the Free tier, with fewer daily messages as a trade-off.

During the test, ads are chosen based on the topic of a conversation and past interactions with ads. For example, someone asking about cooking may see adverts linked to food shopping or meal services. 

The company said ads will not appear alongside topics such as health, mental health or politics.

Users can dismiss adverts, give feedback, see why a particular advert appeared, delete their ad data and adjust personalisation settings at any time, according to OpenAI.

This comes as the company looks for new revenue streams to support the growing use of its chatbot. Competitors have criticised the idea publicly, arguing that advertising could disrupt the user experience. 

OpenAI has rejected that view and says the trial is about learning from feedback before making any wider changes.

OpenAI also noted it will expand the programme only as safeguards improve, adding that privacy and safety will remain important as the test continues.

The message, shared internally and seen by CNBC, said the company is also getting ready to release “an updated Chat model” this week. 

ChatGPT now has more than 800 million people using it every week and competition is getting tougher. 

Google’s Gemini app passed 750 million monthly users at the end of last year, while Anthropic has gained ground, especially among software developers.

The pressure is being felt most in coding tools. In his note to staff, Altman said OpenAI’s own coding product, Codex, had grown by about 50% in just one week. 

Codex goes head-to-head with Anthropic’s Claude Code, which has seen fast uptake over the past year.

OpenAI released a new version of Codex, called GPT-5.3-Codex, last week. Altman described the recent momentum as “insane” and added: “This was a great week.”

The company’s push comes after a period of concern about slowing growth. In December, OpenAI shifted staff and resources to improve ChatGPT as competitors closed in, both in growth and other areas.

Since then, the focus has been on keeping users engaged while expanding paid and business services.

OpenAI is also moving ahead with plans to show adverts inside ChatGPT for some users in the United States. The company has said the ads will be clearly marked, appear at the bottom of responses and will not affect what the chatbot says.

Behind the scenes, Altman and finance chief Sarah Friar have been briefing investors on OpenAI’s performance as the company seeks to complete a large funding round. 

CNBC has reported that discussions involve several major technology firms and could be finalised in stages. The figures and structure are still under discussion and may change.

For now, the message to ChatGPT staff was that growth in usage is here again, new products are rolling out, and OpenAI believes it has regained momentum in a crowded market.

The Truecaller ROI of Trust is the company’s first full attempt at quantifying how users respond to advertising in an environment built on verified identity.

The launch comes as the platform expands across the Middle East and Africa, where mobile-first users and digital activities have created a busy, data-driven advertising market. 

Truecaller sees this region as a huge opportunity, and the company says it intends to strengthen its partnerships and presence as adoption rises.

At the centre of the new suite is a framework that tries to measure what actually influences outcomes, whether an advert captures attention, whether it earns trust, and whether that trust turns into confidence to act. 

Truecaller places the ROI of Trust as a way for brands to understand whether users saw an advert, and if it meant anything to them.

Hemant Arora, vice president and global head of Ads Business at Truecaller, said, “With high daily engagement, Truecaller has grown into a platform where user attention is both meaningful and actionable. We’re committed to helping advertisers tap into this attention more effectively by offering verified, privacy-safe tools to measure impact in a smarter and more collaborative way”.

Archana Roche, Truecaller’s global head of Measurement, added, “Every impression on Truecaller carries a halo of trust. Through our Trust and Confidence Framework, we can now quantify how ads in this trusted environment build credibility and inspire belief. When people see brands within this halo, they instinctively perceive them as more reliable and worth engaging with”.

The measurement suite itself is built on five core components. The Trust & Confidence Indices form the base, creating a proprietary method for scoring attention, trust, and confidence to act. 

Brand lift studies, carried out with Kantar and VTION, track outcomes across awareness, recall, favourability, and purchase intent. Early tests, according to the company, show positive movement in attention and trust, alongside improvements in its own Trust and Confidence Uplift metric.

Truecaller is also trying to help advertisers understand reach more clearly. Through audience mapping with VTION and privacy-safe data clean rooms, the company reports that brands often achieve 28–35% incremental reach beyond major social platforms.

Two performance-oriented tools complete the suite. The first is multivariate testing, powered by RainMan Consulting, which isolates the variables that lift campaign results. 

The second is Marketing Mix Modelling, also supported by RainMan, which uses elasticity models and simulation to estimate Truecaller’s contribution to overall media ROI and guide future spending.

Truecaller stressed that all measurement takes place within controlled, privacy-safe environments. Instead of relying on declared user data, the company uses passive behavioural signals and independent validation, working with external partners to maintain transparency and protect user trust.

This immediately sent the company’s shares up by 16% after trading hours.

Under the one-year deal, paid in cash and equity, Perplexity’s AI-powered “answer engine” will become part of Snapchat’s chat interface, letting users ask questions and receive verified, real-time responses without leaving the app. 

Revenue contributions from the partnership are expected to begin in 2026.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel confirmed that the new feature will be ad-free. “Perplexity AI will control the responses from their chatbot inside of Snapchat. So, we won’t be selling advertising against the Perplexity responses,” he said.

The collaboration will enable Snap to compete more aggressively with social media giants like TikTok and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, both of which have long topped the advertising market. 

Analysts see mutual benefits as Perplexity gains exposure among younger audiences, while Snap strengthens user engagement within its platform.

“Perplexity needs a way to build its profile among young consumers, and Snap needs an AI chat partner that will allow its users to stay engaged without leaving its app,” said Max Willens, principal analyst at Emarketer.

Snap’s own AI tool, “My AI,” will be available, but users will now have the option to interact with Perplexity’s chatbot instead. Spiegel described the initiative as part of Snap’s goal to make artificial intelligence “more personal, social, and fun.” He also noted that more third-party AI integrations could follow.

The announcement came alongside Snap’s third-quarter earnings, which showed a 10% year-on-year revenue increase to $1.51 billion, beating analyst expectations of $1.49 billion, according to LSEG data. 

The company’s net loss narrowed to $104 million, down from $153 million a year earlier, while daily active users climbed 8% to 477 million globally.

Snap’s focus on direct-response advertising continued to pay off, with that segment rising 8% during the quarter. Growth was driven by demand for its “Pixel Purchase” and “App Purchase” tools, which help businesses reach users more likely to complete transactions.

Still, the company warned of possible challenges in the coming quarter. Snap expects daily active users could decline slightly due to new regulatory changes, including Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Bill, which takes effect in December and will tighten access for younger users.

For the final quarter of 2025, Snap projected revenue between $1.68 billion and $1.71 billion, broadly in line with market expectations of $1.69 billion.

Placing the company in direct competition with Google Chrome, the browser, now available globally on macOS, brings ChatGPT beyond its traditional chat interface and into the core of how users interact with the web. 

Atlas allows users to summarise webpages, compare products, analyse data, fill out forms, and even automate complex tasks. With its built-in “Agent Mode,” paid subscribers can delegate multi-step activities such as trip planning, online shopping, or research, all executed autonomously by ChatGPT.

In a live demo, OpenAI engineers showed ChatGPT finding an online recipe and purchasing all the required ingredients on Instacart, demonstrating the browser’s ability to handle tasks from start to finish. Versions for Windows, iOS, and Android are expected to follow soon.

Atlas is built on Chromium, the same open-source engine behind Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, ensuring full compatibility with existing websites. The browser also introduces browser memories, allowing ChatGPT to retain context from sites a user visits and use that information to provide smarter assistance later. 

Importantly, users maintain full control, they can view, archive, or delete these memories and browsing history at any time.

One early tester, college student Yogya Kalra, commended the tool’s seamless learning experience: “During lectures, I like using practice questions and real-world examples to really understand the material. 

“I used to switch between my slides and ChatGPT, taking screenshots just to ask a question. Now ChatGPT instantly understands what I’m looking at, helping me improve my knowledge checks as I go.”

According to OpenAI, Atlas is designed to create a more natural and interactive browsing experience by letting ChatGPT “come with you anywhere across the web.” The company says this integration will allow users to get work done faster, without constantly switching tabs or copying and pasting information.

Following the release, Alphabet’s shares fell by 1.8%. This reveals the market is uneasy due to the potential disruption to Google’s search advertising business. Analysts note that by embedding chat-driven search into a browser, OpenAI could eventually compete for a significant portion of Google’s ad revenue.

“Integrating chat into a browser is a precursor for OpenAI starting to sell ads, which it has yet to do so far,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. “Once OpenAI starts selling ads, that could take away a significant part of search advertising share from Google, which has around 90% of that spend category.”

Despite Chrome’s commanding 71.9% global market share, experts believe AI-native browsers like Atlas could gradually impact user behaviour, pushing the industry toward a more personalised, conversational web.

With the launch, OpenAI is leaping from being a software provider to owning part of the consumer interface. With over 800 million weekly active ChatGPT users, the company now has a massive base to build new monetisation channels, from search ads to productivity tools.

Atlas’s launch also stresses the competition between OpenAI and Google. In response to ChatGPT’s growing influence, Google has integrated its Gemini AI model into Chrome and introduced AI Overviews, blending chatbot-style summaries with traditional search results.

While Chrome still tops for now, Atlas shows browsing could become less about typing keywords, and more about having an intelligent assistant that understands, learns, and acts on behalf of the user.

This projection comes from PwC’s newly released Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2025–2029, which shows a seismic transition in how the industry earns and evolves, powered heavily by artificial intelligence and changing consumer habits.

At the core of this growth is a gap between consumer spending and advertising revenue. While consumer expenditure across E&M is projected to grow at a modest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2%, advertising is surging at 6.1% CAGR, three times faster. 

This shows that the commercial logic of the industry is changing, people may be spending less, but advertisers are spending more to reach them.

AI is driving this growth from several angles. From hyper-personalised targeting across platforms to real-time analytics and automated video editing, artificial intelligence is trimming production costs and enabling producers to deliver content tailored to specific markets in ways that weren’t possible five years ago.

Digital advertising, which made up 72% of the total ad revenue in 2024, is expected to reach 80% by 2029. That growth is being driven by retail media, mobile and social video, and notably, connected TV (CTV) advertising, which is changing traditional broadcast models. 

PwC forecasts that CTV ad revenue will climb to $51 billion by 2029, up from a minor share in 2020, thanks largely to AI-powered personalisation that enables precision targeting across streaming services.

Meanwhile, the video gaming sector is proving to be a revenue juggernaut of its own. By 2029, it is projected to pull in nearly $300 billion, surpassing the combined earnings of the global film and music industries. Much of that growth will be fuelled by in-game advertising, branded content, and the meteoric rise of mobile and e-sports markets.

Some of the most explosive growth is happening outside traditional Western strongholds. Emerging markets like India, Indonesia, and Nigeria are overtaking global averages with CAGRs above 7.5%. In India, internet advertising alone is growing at nearly 16% per year, driven by increasing access to 5G and surging demand for short-form video.

Beyond revenue numbers, AI is becoming integral to the creative process. Scriptwriting, localisation, audience analytics, and video editing are all being automated and optimised, reducing turnaround time and enabling production teams to serve highly segmented audiences without ballooning costs.

Bart Spiegel, Global Entertainment and Media Leader at PwC U.S., said: “There’s certain general macroeconomic pressures on individuals, families and advertising starts to subsidize a lot of that.” 

He added, “[The industry] has always been at the forefront of technological innovation, but companies will need to remain nimble and proactive to embrace the future and satisfy consumers in an ecosystem that rewards creativity and tailored content.”

This transition is aimed at enhancing seller performance, improving customer experience, and accelerating Jumia’s advertising monetization strategy through AI-powered sponsored product ads.

Jumia and Mirakl Ads: Powering the Future of E-Commerce Advertising in Africa

With retail media projected to hit $204 billion globally by 2027 and grow at a 17.2% CAGR, Jumia’s integration of Mirakl Ads positions the company at the forefront of this explosive trend.

The partnership delivers enterprise-grade ad technology, enabling sellers, both large brands and small vendors, to boost visibility and sales across Jumia’s markets in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Egypt, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Algeria, and Morocco.

“Advertising is a key growth lever in our marketplace strategy,” said Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia. “Partnering with Mirakl allows us to scale quickly, offering smarter advertising tools to sellers and a more personalized shopping experience to customers. This directly supports our goal to grow gross profit and accelerate our path to profitability.”

Faster, Smarter, and More Profitable Advertising

In just two months, Jumia successfully launched Mirakl Ads, demonstrating the platform’s rapid deployment capabilities and ease of integration. Now live, the solution delivers:

• AI-powered optimization for smarter targeting
• Automated campaign management for faster execution
• Improved product discoverability for higher conversion rates
• Advanced analytics to track ROI and ad performance

These tools empower sellers to run high-impact advertising campaigns directly within the Jumia marketplace, reaching millions of active online shoppers across Africa with relevant, personalized product recommendations.

Unlocking Revenue Streams and Seller Growth

This replatforming to Mirakl Ads is more than a tech upgrade—it represents a strategic shift in how Jumia monetizes its platform while deepening its relationships with sellers and customers. With personalized ad placements, real-time bidding, and data-driven insights, the advertising experience becomes more seamless and ROI-focused.

“Jumia’s decision to adopt Mirakl Ads validates our platform’s ability to deliver measurable impact at scale,” said Adrien Nussenbaum, co-founder and Co-CEO of Mirakl. “Together, we’re unlocking new levels of growth for African sellers and delivering a more engaging shopping experience for consumers.”

A Milestone for E-Commerce and Digital Innovation in Africa

The partnership marks a milestone in the evolution of retail media in Africa, bridging global technology and local market expertise. As Jumia continues to expand its digital services ecosystem, from payments to logistics and now advertising, it solidifies its position as Africa’s leading e-commerce and digital services platform.

This follows years of speculation and denials, pointing to Meta’s thriving urgency to turn WhatsApp’s massive user base into a revenue driver.

The messaging platform, which now serves over two billion people globally, is rolling out three commercial tools designed to help creators, businesses, and organisations promote content and generate income. 

These include paid Channel subscriptions, promoted listings for Channels in the app’s Discovery section, and targeted ads inside WhatsApp’s Status feature.

The changes will be limited to the Updates tab, which hosts both Channels and Status updates, and not the main chat interface where users exchange personal messages. 

Meta says this strategy aims to avoid disrupting the private, ad-free chat experience WhatsApp is known for.

“We’ve been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work,” WhatsApp said.

According to the company, the rollout is phased and may take several months to reach all users globally. While the features are business-centric, Meta insists that privacy is unchanged and personal messaging will not be affected or monitored for advertising.

“I want to be really clear about one thing: Your personal messages, calls and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted. This means no one, not even us, can see or hear them, and they cannot be used for ads,” said Nikila Srinivasan, vice president of Product Management at Meta.

Instead, ads and suggestions will rely on basic device-level data such as language, city, and how users interact with the Updates tab. 

For those who have linked WhatsApp to Meta’s Accounts Centre, their ad preferences and Meta-wide activity may influence what they see, though not their phone numbers, private messages, or group activities.

“To show ads in Status or Channels, we’re going to use basic information like your country or city, your device language and your activity in the Updates tab,” Srinivasan added.

With this new development, Meta wants to transform WhatsApp into a multi-layered platform, one that accommodates both personal communication and business engagement. 

Until now, WhatsApp’s monetisation exertions had been largely restricted to business messaging tools and minimal ad tests.

This is the first time WhatsApp will allow businesses to push sponsored content in ways similar to Instagram Stories, while creators and public figures can charge subscribers for exclusive content via Channels.

The timeline for full global availability is not yet known but Meta has already opened up access to the features through its WhatsApp Business tools.