In May’s Global Ad Trends report on Big Tech’s growing share of the post-COVID ad economy, WARC Media observed that the $16.9bn invested by Amazon in advertising in 2021 was likely the largest sum ever spent by an advertiser within a 12-month period in history.
However, new data reported by The Wall Street Journal suggests this amount may have been superseded by ByteDance. The privately-owned, Beijing-based company does not share its results publicly. Citing an internal financial report shared with employees, WSJclaims the TikTok-owner spent $19.2bn on selling and marketing expenses in 2021....