Criteo

You look at sneakers on a retail website. You leave without buying. For the next two weeks, those exact sneakers follow you across every website and app. That is retargeting. Critio built a $14 billion business on the observation that someone who looked at a product is more likely to buy than someone who did not. Critio launched in 2005 in Paris. The technology tracked browsing across thousands of retail sites and served personalized ads to users who abandoned carts. Conversion on retargeted ads was 10 times higher than standard display. Retailers paid per click. Critio took 30% to 40% commission on each. Revenue peaked at $2.3 billion in 2018. Then Apple and Google began restricting third party cookies.