Is this one of those "it doesn't have to make sense, it's just for publicity" things? Why are the uni students holding a rally? What connection do they have to"Paybuyer, LLC" which funds this Adwords competitor?
> Is this one of those "it doesn't have to make sense, it's just for publicity" things? Pretty much. > Why are the uni students holding a rally? What connection do they have to"Paybuyer, LLC" which funds this Adwords competitor? It's not a rally; they're holding up giant signs to face traffic. I think it was four people to a sign. (It didn't occur to me to take a picture until I was already far away.) This is just a…
There are no ads that are put onto publishers' websites to get paid. In order for this to work people have to manually go to the web-based "yellow pages" and then register their intent to buy say, a washing machine, and then that gives you a lottery ticket where if you win, you have to prove that you have purchased a washing machine within N days of registering your intent.
So suppose I have already decided to buy a washing machine, and GE, Maytag, and Kenmore have all bought into this scheme. This allows me to get 3 lottery picks, which might have an expected value of 10 cents each ($100, with a 1 in 1000 chance of winning, say). Presumably GE, Maytag, and Kenmore will all have to pay 15 cents, with the startup pocketing 5 cents.
The question is whether GE, Maytag, and Kenmore get 15 cents worth of value. Remember, I was a motivated buyer who had already decided to buy a washing machine. The only question was which one. This isn't going to reach someone who hadn't yet decided that they were going to buy, and so didn't have the motivation to go to the startup's web page.
To think this would disrupt a true advertising based system, whether it's Adwords, or even the pullouts in the Sunday morning newspaper is just silly.