On this week's episode of the MadTech Podcast, Ryan Schumann, global marketing & analytics manager at Lindt, joins ExchangeWire's Anne-Marie Sheedy and Mat Broughton to discuss Disney's reappointment of Bob Iger as CEO, TikTok’s streak of hires in a wilting tech sector, and the unexpectedly high energy consumption of online ads.

Bob Iger returns as Disney CEO

What does Iger’s reappointment suggest about Disney’s direction? What could this shakeup mean for streaming on a broader scale? 

Former Disney chief Bob Iger will return to the entertainment giant more than two years after stepping down. Iger, who is also the company's largest shareholder, will replace current CEO Bob Chapek, who took over in February 2020.

The change in office follows a tumultuous year for Disney; shares at the company have fallen by over 40% and, although the subscriber base of Disney+ has grown, so too have the costs of streaming, preventing the service from turning a profit. Commenting on Iger’s reappointment, Disney’s board chair Susan Arnold said, “The Board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the Company through this pivotal period”.

TikTok continues to hire amidst tech sector layoffs

Do you think TikTok’s hiring strategy will place it ahead of competitors? Will the additional hires pay off in the long run?

As companies across the tech sector freeze hiring and cut staff, TikTok has been bucking the trend. The social media giant is in the midst of a three-year hiring campaign, committing to increase its supply of engineers internationally by about 3,000, in addition to recruiting at its main hub in Singapore.

The ByeDance-owned company has not been completely unscathed by the economic headwinds battering the tech sector, reducing its target revenue for 2022 from USD$12bn (~£10.14bn) to USD$10bn (~£8.45bn). Nonetheless, TikTok is persevering with its hiring strategy, with chief executive Shou Zi Chew commenting “We’re still hiring, although at the pace that we think has to correspond with the global challenges that we’re facing.”

Online adverts consume as much energy as a small country

What does this research mean for advertisers? What can ad tech do to reduce energy consumption?

Research from the UC3M-Satander Big Data Institute in Spain has revealed that online ads use significantly more energy than expected - as much as “a small country.”

The research, led by postdoctoral fellow Patricia Cajello, found that the average power consumption per ad ranges from 0.3 milliwatt hours on a Windows laptop to 8 milliwatt hours on a Windows desktop. According to Cajello, five individual ads consume the same amount of energy as turning on a computer. This estimated energy consumption, combined with the fact that five billion internet users are served between 6,000 and 10,000 ads across a year, suggests that global online advertising may consume as much energy as Sweden - 131 billion kilowatt-hours per year.