For years we have been waiting for one date: the end of third-party cookies. Google had promised — and postponed — it…
For years we have been waiting for one date: the end of third-party cookies. Google had promised — and postponed — it time and again. Now, all signs point to that “end” not arriving as expected. Does that mean we can relax and carry on as before? Absolutely not.
Chrome holds a 65% share of the browser market, which allows third-party cookies to continue offering significant reach. In fact, their potential remains enormous in terms of activation and segmentation. But not total. We are leaving out millions of users who browse via Safari, Firefox or other browsers, who consume content through mobile apps, or who live in closed platforms like Meta or TikTok, where third-party cookies simply do not exist.
So continuing to rely exclusively on them means limiting our vision. It is no longer about abandoning them, but about repositioning them: third-party cookies must be part of a broader strategy where they coexist with other data sources that bring new ways to segment audiences.
The reality is that the digital ecosystem has changed. And so too must our way of understanding people. We cannot be content with segmenting only on the basis of what the user declares (age, gender, approximate interests). We need to understand how they behave. What content do they consume? How often do they return? What journeys do they follow before converting?
At Glocally we have long been working on precisely that angle: the deep observation of behaviour. Mapping patterns, identifying signals, interpreting silences. Understanding people not just by what they say, but by how they move.
In this new context, one of the keys is building intelligence from behavioural data. Because that is where the nuances, the opportunities and the real audiences truly appear.
There is no “end of cookies”. But there is an inflection point: we now know that continuing to bet solely on them is not enough. Brands that want to keep connecting with people need more than data. They need to understand.
