The competitive structure of the global adtech industry is best understood as a fundamental struggle between two competing ecosystems: the "walled gardens" and the "open internet." A competitive landscape analysis of the Adtech Market reveals that a vast majority of digital advertising revenue is concentrated within the walled gardens. This term refers to large, closed platforms that control the entire advertising process—from the user identity and the ad inventory to the ad serving and measurement—within their own proprietary ecosystem. The dominant walled gardens are Google (with its Search, YouTube, and Display Network), Meta (with Facebook and Instagram), and, increasingly, Amazon (with its e-commerce platform and a growing ad business). Their immense competitive advantage stems from their ownership of massive, logged-in user bases, which provides them with a rich, deterministic, first-party data asset for targeting that is unmatched by anyone else. This advantage is becoming even more pronounced in the privacy-first era with the deprecation of third-party cookies, as their internal data is unaffected by these changes. They offer advertisers a simple, one-stop-shop to reach billions of users, but they do so within a non-transparent environment where advertisers have limited control and data portability.
In stark contrast to the walled gardens is the "open internet," which consists of the millions of independent websites, apps, and content creators that are not owned by the major platforms. The adtech ecosystem for the open internet is a complex, multi-party system designed to allow advertisers to reach users across this fragmented landscape. This ecosystem is powered by a host of independent adtech companies. This includes Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) like The Trade Desk, which provide a platform for advertisers to buy ads across the entire open internet; Supply-Side Platforms (SSPs) like Magnite and PubMatic, which help publishers monetize their inventory; and a variety of data, identity, and measurement companies. The core value proposition of the open internet is choice, transparency, and interoperability. Advertisers have more control over their data and can use a variety of different technology partners. Publishers have more options for monetizing their content. The competitive strategy for these independent adtech companies is to provide a powerful and efficient alternative to the walled gardens, offering more sophisticated tools and a more transparent view of the advertising supply chain. The Adtech Market size is projected to grow USD 2039.33 Billion by 2035, exhibiting a CAGR of 13.42% during the forecast period 2025-2035.
The ongoing battle between these two ecosystems is the central drama of the adtech market. The walled gardens are constantly trying to expand their territory, for example, by creating ad networks that extend their reach onto third-party apps and websites. The open internet players, in response, are constantly innovating to provide features and capabilities that can compete with the scale and data advantages of the gardens. The development of new, interoperable identity solutions is a key part of this effort, as it is essential for enabling effective targeting and measurement on the open internet in a post-cookie world. The rise of new, powerful channels like Connected TV (CTV) and retail media is further complicating this dynamic, with both the walled gardens and the open internet players vying to establish a leadership position in these new frontiers. The long-term health of the digital economy arguably depends on the continued vibrancy of the open internet as a competitive counterbalance to the immense power of the walled gardens.
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