71–80 of 218 posts
I think it is very healthy. It creates tiers in the profession because some developers are that much better. Being good glueing together frameworks isn't going to command that salary.
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But is that popular four-letter sports site in US or China? Typically, ad CPMs follow income levels/disposable incomes in the country/area the user is from. The quality of data the advertiser has about the specific user is also important. For example, since a lot of the tracking is illegal in Germany, even though incomes are similar to US, the CPMs are lower because US has more highly cookied/tracked users with highe…
Generally speaking, you should assume that there is a portion of the Chinese economy that is approximately the same size as the US with about the same amount of disposable income. This is very much an apples to oranges comparison, but a large part of China is effectively "rich" by international standards. Note that there is also a very much not-rich part of China that brings down the avergages. The averages don't mat…
Chinese consumer economy is not the same size as US in nominal terms, so the ad spending can't be the same either. Which led me to question the revenue numbers in the first place.
I suspect that some combination of real revenues and inflationary/artificial cash flows from investments being poured in their customers are the underlying reason. Similar to the feeding frenzy with bike share companies that were profiled in the news a few weeks ago.
The thing that surprises me is that, after paying these engineers seven figures, they're still sticking them in open plan offices (as far as I can tell from the photos). Though I do know some people who can work effectively in that environment, it would be interesting to compare ever-so-slightly-cheaper engineers + a less-distracted work environment.
How is a company $2.5 billion in (projected) revenue a "startup"?
Depends on age and size? If I created a business model where I give you 1.15 for every $1 you give me, I bet I could see billions in revenue. And my company only has three employees. Two of which are cats! But your point is well taken.
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Does anyone actually believe in adtech? Are people truly passionate about social media monetization? Most signaling about passion is transparent bullshit. For a first pass: do the people you hire apply exclusively to you and your competitors? No? Then they aren't passionate about your company's mission. At least, not any more passionate than the they are about the missions of the other companies they would have worke…
Good points. I recall a compelling RSA animate video about motivation and job satisfaction, which distilled their factors down to just three: mastery, autonomy, and purpose.
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What's more valuable than building a top notch system for delivering news (and everything that tends to go with that) to a billion people? A very large number of engineers were dedicated to building out the radio and television technology platforms over decades. Was it all just to deliver ads? Trivial then right? Well that's what paid for a lot of it. It delivered community, it delivered news, it delivered entertainm…
Delivering news is a solved problem.
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news aggregation, and the selective targeting of individuals for advertising might just be the most powerful social influence today. Wins elections even...
I wouldn't give advertising that much credit. An equal amount of money is spent on lost elections too.
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news aggregation, and the selective targeting of individuals for advertising might just be the most powerful social influence today. Wins elections even...
I wouldn't give advertising that much credit. An equal amount of money is spent on lost elections too.
That's false. There's a pretty strong correlation between outspending and winning elections. The losing side usually spent less. In aggregate, much more money is spent winning elections than losing them.
eg: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/04/04/th...