All that needed to happen is that the authority responsible for enforcing US antitrust laws vetoed against the acquisition of DoubleClick by Google and of Whatsapp by Facebook. Why haven't they?
The Digital Advertising Duopoly
51–60 of 111 posts
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that the role of governments in a healthy economy? To step in when markets fail?
This is where all corruption originates. One group seeks to use the state to impose their will on another group. The victimized group, in turn, seeks to defend itself by bribing the enforcers. Instead of capital flowing to those who are best able to convert it into the most happiness for the most people, it flows to those seeking to enrich themselves by pitting people against each other in order to extract ever large…
> Instead of capital flowing to those who are best able to convert it into the most happiness for the most people
This isn’t the natural progression of free market capitalism though. The money will flow to those who are best able to use it to control the behavior of their customers spending. Making someone happy is just one way of controlling their spending, but there are many, many others.
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is where all corruption originates. One group seeks to use the state to impose their will on another group. The victimized group, in turn, seeks to defend itself by bribing the enforcers. Instead of capital flowing to those who are best able to convert it into the most happiness for the most people, it flows to those seeking to enrich themselves by pitting people against each other in order to extract ever large…
> Instead of capital flowing to those who are best able to convert it into the most happiness for the most people This isn’t the natural progression of free market capitalism though. The money will flow to those who are best able to use it to control the behavior of their customers spending. Making someone happy is just one way of controlling their spending, but there are many, many others.
That's an interesting point. Are there any examples of "alternatives ways of controlling the behavior of their customers spending" which do not result in the customer feeling motivated to withdraw from the relationship?
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the US did what the EU has done, I would probably have to wait another 50 years for products I use every day like - Google Maps - Google Speech Recognition - Google Photos Search - Google Home I'm thankful that my government has allowed innovation to continue. I'm glad they have represented my interests as a consumer by favoring technological growth over protection I neither want nor need.
Ever used Skype? Spotify? Trivago? Those are EU tech products many people use everyday, just goes to show that intervening from time to time doesn't necessarily mean that we live in some socialist, repressive regime. You're welcome, by the way.
Google offers plenty of minor services but Maps is in a completely different league than Skype or even Spotify.
YouTube is closer to Spotify but would probably still be impossible without Google's massive investment. Dailymotion is pretty far behind.
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#55>I don’t think subscriptions are the only answer here, as many do. >We need models that support free consumption of media for many reasons. If you rule out paid subscriptions to subsidize the freeriders, what options are left for "free" consumption? Either advertisements or a government-sponsored system (e.g. citizens taxed to support the BBC tv channels). If there's a crypto financing option that Fred is hinting at,…
I think he refers to https://basicattentiontoken.org
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#56Being against government intervention is naive. If the US did what the EU has done with allowing people to avoid being tracked the big tech companies would be nudged toward developing smarter business models. Maybe it's not necessary but it's foolish to dismiss government out of hand. Allowing your largest companies to compete over hijacking your public's attention is precisely the sort of thing that reeks of governm…
If the US did what the EU has done, I would probably have to wait another 50 years for products I use every day like - Google Maps - Google Speech Recognition - Google Photos Search - Google Home I'm thankful that my government has allowed innovation to continue. I'm glad they have represented my interests as a consumer by favoring technological growth over protection I neither want nor need.
Note that China has reproduced to a large extent and in some areas exceeded these services within a few years precisely through massive government intervention
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is where all corruption originates. One group seeks to use the state to impose their will on another group. The victimized group, in turn, seeks to defend itself by bribing the enforcers. Instead of capital flowing to those who are best able to convert it into the most happiness for the most people, it flows to those seeking to enrich themselves by pitting people against each other in order to extract ever large…
Or, you know, government happens to be the best solution we have to certain types of coordination problems, some of which plague market economies. But no, I'm sure literally everything government does that interacts with the market just creates corruption without sufficient benefit to outweigh any such harm, and it'd be better if we didn't do anything at all. Certainly it's easier to think about politics if we can pe…
Lots of quick hacks lead can lead to the accumulation of technical debt which can seriously impair the ability of the system to function. This can be even more problematic if the technical debt becomes a living entity intent on surviving and thriving whilst being dependent on an ever growing number of quick hacks as its only means of sustenance. ;)
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#58There are only two ways to break the duopoly: create your own massive medium like Facebook or work with publishers. Having worked in this industry, I think working with publishers is an impossible battle. The whole publishing world is rife with fraud and desperate attempts to increase page views. Most publishers cram their websites with ads. The number of low-content, click-baity websites is just staggering. Sometime…
Native ads. Match that up with content creator networks
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#59The problem with subscriptions is not the cost, its the sheer number of them - and some come up almost accidentally. I pay a lot to my ISP every month. I would like to see a company that charges me monthly to eliminate all adware by micro-paying the participating websites for my actual page visits. In fact, if my ISP added such a service for a fee, I would sign up.
Next wave - aggregated subscription bundlers? Would also facilitate cross-marketing
Re: The Digital Advertising Duopoly
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the US did what the EU has done, I would probably have to wait another 50 years for products I use every day like - Google Maps - Google Speech Recognition - Google Photos Search - Google Home I'm thankful that my government has allowed innovation to continue. I'm glad they have represented my interests as a consumer by favoring technological growth over protection I neither want nor need.
Note that China has reproduced to a large extent and in some areas exceeded these services within a few years precisely through massive government intervention
What does it mean to "exceed" a service?