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Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

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Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#11

Post by thehal84 »

ised wrote: post #8

What I find amusing about this is that in addition to taking the money on the table by serving mobile ads, the carriers are also charging their customers for "data". All the mobile ad and other cruft just increases the amount of data used by the customer. Imagine if customers were only charged for the actual content. Is CSS, fonts and Javascript "content"? I guess it depends who you ask. As a user, I rarely turn on J…

it is no different then cable TV. You pay to watch all those commercials. In Canada the largest Carriers also happen to be Cable providers.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#12

Post by Asbostos »

ajb wrote: post #2

Wow. So, if we work out a way for carriers to fund content (in return for increased marginal data consumptiom) then we can ditch the ad-funding model?

Or rather, if we work out a way for users to spend their money on content instead of the ad traffic, we can ditch the ad-funding model. This shows that viewer-pays web content is economically feasible, we just need some technology to get the money from the user to the content provider.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#13

Post by awhitty »

idunno246 wrote: post #4
ajb wrote: post #2

Wow. So, if we work out a way for carriers to fund content (in return for increased marginal data consumptiom) then we can ditch the ad-funding model?

Isn't this exactly what net neutrality is fighting?

I thought it was fighting the reverse: content creators/publishers pay to have priority access to consumers. Or is it fighting both directions?

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#14

Post by mattzito »

thehal84 wrote: post #11
ised wrote: post #8

What I find amusing about this is that in addition to taking the money on the table by serving mobile ads, the carriers are also charging their customers for "data". All the mobile ad and other cruft just increases the amount of data used by the customer. Imagine if customers were only charged for the actual content. Is CSS, fonts and Javascript "content"? I guess it depends who you ask. As a user, I rarely turn on J…

it is no different then cable TV. You pay to watch all those commercials. In Canada the largest Carriers also happen to be Cable providers.

It's a little different - in effect, the amount of TV I watch has no impact on the cost to me from my cable provider.

In this case, the more ads you consume, potentially the more you pay from your wireless carrier.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#15

Post by manigandham »

This is a weird comparison though since they're separate issues.

When you go to a theater, the cost of driving/gas can be more than the movie ticket. It's up to the user to weigh the costs.

I think this really highlights the mobile data ripoff that currently exists more than ads/cruft but both are real problems, just orthogonal. Then again the majority of mobile data is over wifi anyway so it's not as bad as it seems.

Zero-rating / sponsored data does seem to have some potential applications here though. Not many scenarios yet but might become more common.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#16

Post by Scoundreller »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #5

Things are going to come to a head sooner rather than later. People are more and more talking about how bloated and slow web pages have become. Now we have ad blocking thrown into the mix. Consumers are tired of big, slow web sites with intrusive ads (non-intrusive, people seem to be more ok with). Web pages need to go on a diet. Lighten the size of the frameworks. Don't use so many hi-res images (and heck, what ever…

It's tough for publishers.

I run a directory-type website. Most visitors probably spent 30s on the site, getting the information they need right away.

I decided to change from 2 to 3 ads per page, make them bigger, and more in-line with the content, rather than just beside and below it. The ad network was a major search engine.

I managed to 3-4x CPMs. Traffic went down by 25%. Effectively, users encouraged this type of behaviour by publishers.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#17

Post by kps »

IBM wrote: post #7
ori_b wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Things are going to come to a head sooner rather than later. People are more and more talking about how bloated and slow web pages have become. Now we have ad blocking thrown into the mix. I remember people talking about this since the late 1990s.

In the 1990s Apple didn't have leverage over the web like they do now and not being an internet company that makes money from ads, their incentives are aligned with combating this more than ever.

  > their incentives are aligned
They sure are. Apple sells native ads which, naturally, they do not allow users to block. http://advertising.apple.com/

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#18

Post by Ironchefpython »

thehal84 wrote: post #11
ised wrote: post #8

What I find amusing about this is that in addition to taking the money on the table by serving mobile ads, the carriers are also charging their customers for "data". All the mobile ad and other cruft just increases the amount of data used by the customer. Imagine if customers were only charged for the actual content. Is CSS, fonts and Javascript "content"? I guess it depends who you ask. As a user, I rarely turn on J…

it is no different then cable TV. You pay to watch all those commercials. In Canada the largest Carriers also happen to be Cable providers.

It would be more analogous if cable providers charged you by the minute for TV service. Each commercial would essentially be double billed.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#19

Post by superuser2 »

kps wrote: post #17
IBM wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 1990s Apple didn't have leverage over the web like they do now and not being an internet company that makes money from ads, their incentives are aligned with combating this more than ever.

> their incentives are aligned They sure are. Apple sells native ads which, naturally, they do not allow users to block. http://advertising.apple.com/

Native advertising is a reserved word at this point, signifying advertising pretending to be any other article in a publication, differentiated from the work of the organization's actual journalists only by a tiny disclaimer, if that.

Advertising from a computing platform itself should probably have a name, but not that one.

Re: Carriers Are Making More from Mobile Ads Than Publishers Are

#20

Post by eevilspock »

Asbostos wrote: post #12
ajb wrote: post #2

Wow. So, if we work out a way for carriers to fund content (in return for increased marginal data consumptiom) then we can ditch the ad-funding model?

Or rather, if we work out a way for users to spend their money on content instead of the ad traffic, we can ditch the ad-funding model. This shows that viewer-pays web content is economically feasible, we just need some technology to get the money from the user to the content provider.

Of course viewer-pays web content is economically feasible. Because we are already paying for it! Where do you think the advertisers get their money from? The idea that ads give us things for free is an utter lie: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8585237

You're right about the need for technology innovation around payment. The problem is, there is more money to be made under the current ad regime. When you ask people to pay for things, they will only pay for the things they truly think are worth it (That's key to the idea of the free-market!) But when you get people to use your product by fooling them into thinking its free, but while they are mesmerized by their good fortune at all this free stuff your accomplice the advertiser is on the other side picking their pocket, who then gives you a hefty cut, you can make gobs of money! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10047706

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