Commerce media: social overtakes SEO and Google builds a cart

The Independent's social-commerce revenue edged past its SEO-based commerce revenue for the first time in September, CEO Christian Broughton told Digiday's Media Strategies event, where he declared the search-and-social model that powered digital publishing "dead" and said four areas, AI, creator-led studio work, e-commerce and membership, will account for nearly half of revenue this year after the company posted £55.1 million ($73 million) of 2025 revenue, up 4 percent, with those areas growing close to 30 percent year over year. Wirecutter told Digiday its hybrid advertising and affiliate deals grew more than 300 percent year over year as it diversifies beyond search-dependent affiliate commissions. Google began rolling out its Universal Cart, built on a Universal Commerce Protocol co-developed with Shopify, and Tipsheet asked whether the cart's next stop is advertising.

The crux

Commerce is absorbing the traffic that search used to send, and the platform that used to send it, Google, is now building the checkout itself, so publishers must own a transaction or a trusted recommendation, or both.

Sell-side read

Affiliate-only business models are being re-priced as AI search squeezes referrals, so publishers that bundle commerce with advertising and membership, Wirecutter's hybrid deals and The Independent's e-commerce arm, are converting their audience trust into transaction economics rather than renting it out as traffic.

Watch

Whether Google's Universal Cart opens up to publisher inventory, which would make Google a direct commerce competitor to the very publishers it is paying for content.