How Microsoft can double its ad business to $20 billion

Happy Cyber Monday, folks! I'm your host, Jordan Parker Erb. If you're not already shopped out from Black Friday, we've got a guide to today's biggest deals from across the internet.

Before we get to that, though, let's talk about Microsoft. As the ad industry braces itself for what's sure to be a challenging 2023, we're taking a look at what Microsoft will need to do to achieve its ambitious goal of doubling its advertising business to $20 billion.

Ready? Let's get into it.

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1. Microsoft plans to grow its advertising business to $20 billion. In an interview with Insider, Microsoft Ads chief Rob Wilk shared plans to double the size of the company's ad business. Consultants say that if successful, Microsoft could one day be "a big four size" global ad player.

• Microsoft faces a big challenge, though. A gloomy economic outlook has slowed growth at advertising stalwarts like Meta and Google, and it continues to face intense competition from TikTok, Amazon, and Apple.
• Plus, 2023 doesn't look like it will offer any respite: privacy-focused regulations will greatly impact ad targeting and measurement for adtech companies in the coming year.
• To be successful, ad insiders say Microsoft Advertising must bundle all of its properties, including Bing search, Xbox, MSN, and hundreds of other websites that use Xandr, the firm it acquired from AT&T, to sell digital ads.
• Were Microsoft to reach $20 billion in ad revenue, it would overtake Chinese tech and media giant Tencent to become the sixth-largest digital ad seller worldwide, based on Insider Intelligence's estimates.

How Microsoft can double its ad revenue.

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In other news:

2. We have your guide to the best Cyber Monday deals. Some of the best sales are on streaming services, including a Peacock subscription for 80% off, and a Hulu subscription for 55% off. Check out more than 100 hot deals.

3. Elon Musk hired one of the fake Twitter quitters who posed as a laid-off engineer. Daniel Francis, one part of the duo that pretended to be laid-off engineers — an antic that added to the chaos of Musk's first day as Twitter's owner — is now actually employed by the company. How he got the job.

4. Where'd Sam Bankman-Fried's money go? At his peak, the FTX founder's net worth was $26 billion, a sum he spent on properties, political donations, funding sports teams, and more. Now, lawyers say "the emperor had no clothes." Here's where the money went.

5. A software engineer shares the worst things about his job. Gyasi Calhoun, a front-end software engineer and developer at Twilio, said there's perks to the job, but that the industry can be stressful. From pressure to code outside of work to developing an addiction to success, here are the downsides of software engineering.

6. Elon Musk belongs to an exclusive Hollywood club that forbids members from taking pictures. Members of the San Vicente Bungalows face penalties for being on their phones, and guests are required to place opaque stickers over their phone cameras when visiting the club. Everything we know about haven for Hollywood A-listers.

7. How much does Spotify pay its talent? Data analyzed by Insider shows that the streamer offers as much as $370,000 in base salary to top talent and is hiring for dozens of roles. See how much you could be earning for jobs in engineering, advertising, and other departments at Spotify.

8. Alphabet's DeepMind has put a hiring freeze on new interns. One applicant tweeted that his interview was canceled an hour before it was supposed to start. What we know so far.

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Odds and ends:

9. Check out the $2.1 million Rimac Nevera electric supercar. An Insider writer tested out the glamorous EV — and said it felt like piloting an ultra-luxury rocket. Read the full review here.

10. Doorbell camera owners share unbelievable footage. As the cameras become more popular, users have taken to social media to show what they've caught on tape, like strangers trying to get into their home or catching a Halloween-candy thief. Ten times a doorbell camera saved the day — or kept us awake at night.

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What we're watching today:

• The AWS re:Invent conference kicks off in Las Vegas.
• DCentral Miami starts today.

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Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.

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Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.