2026 Full Agenda

For much of the past decade, the balance of power in mobile in-app advertising has quietly but profoundly shifted. What was once a healthy ebb and flow between supply and demand has, since around 2017, tilted sharply in one direction. Consolidation on the demand side, fewer real choices for publishers, and the erosion of meaningful competition have created an ecosystem where “standards” too often mean lower prices, less accountability, and more risk pushed downstream.

In this talk, we take an unflinching look at how publishers arrived here:

• the rise of bidding models optimized to help buyers pay as little as possible
•  supply-path “optimization” that flattens the supply chain while rarely passing value back to publishers
• declining CPMs paired with worsening ad quality and retention
• verification frameworks that demand endless maintenance from publishers, yet offer little transparency, no voice in governance, and harsh penalties for minor errors
• opaque blacklists, questionable methodologies, and judgments made by companies that have never spoken to, partnered with, or been authorized by the publishers they evaluate

The result? An industry that risks being hollowed out. Where only a handful of large players survive, innovation slows, trust evaporates, and everyone ultimately loses.

But this talk is not a lament. It’s a call to action.

2026 is the year publishers take back their agency.

It’s the year we re-assert that a healthy ecosystem requires both sides to thrive. It’s the year publishers stop being passive price-takers and start shaping standards, demanding accountability, and designing systems that value user experience as much as efficiency.

This session will challenge assumptions, question “accepted” practices, and outline a more balanced future—one where publishers have a real voice, real leverage, and a real stake in how this industry evolves.

Because an ecosystem that works only for a few doesn’t work at all.