Google’s monopoly held us back for years: PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel

New Delhi: PubMatic Co-founder and CEO Rajeev Goel laid out why the 19-year-old ad-tech firm decided to take on Google in court, framing the move as a fight not just for his company but for the future of the open internet.

In a blog post dated September 8, he wrote, “It felt like for many years, no matter how well we innovate, there was a barrier holding us back. That barrier wasn’t the limit of our technology. It was Google’s monopoly.” 

The post coincided with PubMatic’s filing of a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking billions in damages and remedies to address years of anticompetitive conduct.

Goel began by reflecting on the origins of PubMatic in 2006. The company’s mission, he said, was built into its name: combining “publisher” and “automatic” to signal a commitment to helping publishers monetise their content more efficiently through automation.

“As we near our company’s 20th anniversary, I am proud of what we have achieved towards this goal,” Goel noted, pointing to PubMatic’s growth and the value it continues to create for publishers, advertisers and consumers.

But despite innovation and persistence, Goel said PubMatic’s growth had been “constrained by a marketplace distorted by a monopolist,” where coercion and manipulation blocked transparency and diverted billions in ad revenue away from independents.

According to Goel, the digital ad ecosystem has long been tilted in Google’s favour, leaving independent platforms to compete under unfair conditions.

“We’ve been competing on a tilted playing field where greed superseded innovation and coercion blocked transparency,” he wrote.

Goel highlighted that PubMatic still managed to double its market share from 2% to 4% in the past five years, even within this distorted market. 

He described this as a testament to the team’s “dedication, creativity and relentless innovation,” but stressed that the industry could have achieved much more in a level playing field.

Central to Goel’s blog was his vision of an open internet, where fair competition powers innovation and benefits all stakeholders.

He argued that publishers would be able to monetise more effectively, advertisers would maximise their spend, and consumers would enjoy richer, more diverse content if competition were restored.

“Competition is the cornerstone of innovation, but when one company dominates unfairly, everyone else pays the price,” he said, adding that the cost is borne not only by rivals like PubMatic but also by publishers, advertisers, and consumers who end up with fewer choices and less transparency.

Goel stressed that properly functioning markets fuel faster investment and bolder ideas, rewarding merit over dominance. “A more level marketplace will empower independent companies like ours to take bigger bets and drive faster progress, ultimately benefiting our customers and consumers,” he wrote.

While the lawsuit seeks financial damages, Goel emphasised that it is also intended to reset the future of the digital ad ecosystem, particularly at a time when AI, retail media, and curated supply paths are reshaping the industry.

He noted that the “era of walled gardens” is giving way to a more collaborative and transparent landscape, citing the rise of independent retail media networks, partnerships between platforms and open partners, and the growing demand for accountability.

“Our legal action is not just intended to recoup damages based on the past, but it is also meant to set the stage for a better future for this dynamically changing digital advertising ecosystem, which is increasingly dependent on AI,” Goel said.

Goel closed his blog by framing PubMatic’s lawsuit as a broader stand for fairness, collaboration, and trust in digital advertising.

“This transformation will unlock a new era defined by fairness, collaboration, and renewed trust in the ad-supported internet, one where the open internet serves as the world’s most dynamic marketplace for ideas, information, and commerce,” he wrote.

“The future of this industry will not be decided by dominance or coercion, but by the strength of ideas, the power of innovation, and the trust we earn. That is the future PubMatic is fighting to build, and that’s why we’re taking action today.”

Goel’s blog was published the same day PubMatic filed its lawsuit against Google, alleging the search giant manipulated auctions, engaged in self-preferencing, and enforced exclusionary policies that harmed competition.

The suit builds on an April 2025 ruling by a federal judge that concluded Google willfully maintained monopolies in ad exchanges and publisher ad servers, findings that PubMatic says validate years of concerns across the industry.

PubMatic’s case follows a similar suit filed by rival exchange OpenX last month. Both come ahead of the remedies phase of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust trial against Google, set to begin on September 22, where prosecutors are pushing for divestitures of parts of Google’s ad business.