Member Article

Leeds technology business chosen to advise Government on industry regulation

An innovative technology business based in Leeds has been chosen to advise the Government on a new code of practice to regulate competition in the industry.

Beacon, which has offices on Dock Street, has become part of the Digital Markets Taskforce [DMT], put together by the Competitions and Market Authority [CMA] to advise the government on regulating the behaviour of platforms that currently dominate digital markets, such as Google and Facebook.

This comes following growing concerns in the government and across the digital marketing industry about the unfair advantage of tech giants and will see the dedicated Digital Markets Unit work closely with regulators including Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office to introduce and enforce a new code.

Co-founded in 2016 by entrepreneurs Nigel Bridges, Mike Townend and Stewart Boutcher, Beacon is a marketing analytics platform that helps users manage and improve their campaigns. The business is part of the Northern Powerhouse partner programme, which brings together and connects innovative businesses that all believe in the strong economic potential of the north, and is also a corporate member of the Data and Marketing Association [DMA].

The Beacon platform monitors campaign traffic across all channels in one dashboard, with click fraud detection enabling users to understand exactly how much of their digital advertising budget is wasted by bot clicks and ultimately distorting results.

Mike Townend, co-founder and CMO of Beacon, said: “Although we all rely upon and enjoy platforms like Google and Facebook in our everyday lives, these few large tech firms dominate the sector so significantly that it is preventing innovation, increasing advertising prices, and stunting tech growth.

“We are proud to have been selected as part of the Digital Markets Taskforce to help shape the behaviour of powerful firms and govern elements of not only how they do their business with other companies, but how they treat their users, too.

“By partnering with the Government and other leaders in the digital marketing space, we hope to form a pro-competitive regime which supports innovation and unlocks digital competition, which mirrors our own principles and commitment to transparency, honesty and integrity in the sector.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Jones .