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Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

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Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#71
Lovely corporate ethics. I posted this in our company slack room as an example of how not to act for bizdev

Google benefits too much from this sort of arrangement to have any incentive to stop it, even though these are unauthorized advertisements that are specifically against Google's AdWords TOS (side note, I wonder if there is a legal avenue to follow when a vendor doesn't follow their own TOS? An interesting thought...).

This is also a recurring issue with all of Google's advertising revenue -- malicious behavior such as fraudulent clicks, unauthorized ads, etc., are a decent portion of the revenue stream, and Google is financially incentivized to keep these sorts of abuse going until the ruse is up and the accuracy of their system is called into question publicly in a way that scares away advertisers, but with NDAs and corporate secrecy, it is far too easy to keep things unbalanced, and keep abuse like this in the dark.

Business models like this demonstrate just how dire the need for regulation is in some areas of the tech world, particularly among FANG.

Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#73
post #2

> Apple is trying maximize the money they’re making … And that is the problem with our modern companies. The only morals is making money. What a pitiful excuse.

can you explain to me this attitude, which i see a lot? Obviously the entire reason for a companys' existence is to make money why should we expect anything else? Also this is true for every company in history. Of course we must demand companies meet minimum moral standards such as not using slaves (which would be unthinkable today in 2021 cough ) but those must be imposed on them by law. This is a genuine question p…

> Obviously the entire reason for a companys' existence is to make money why should we expect anything else? Also this is true for every company in history.

In Elizabethan times, company charters (and the subsequent right to create and hoard profit) was granted by the queen as a reward for the company doing the work required by the state. Money was a secondary reason for a company's existence, their primary reason was to further the interests of the monarchy and by extension the country.

Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#74
post #30

Surely if 30% fee wipes out your profit margin, you don’t offer in-app subscriptions. Netflix doesn’t.

Netflix has special agreements with Apple. Other apps have been rejected for doing the same thing:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/25/21302931/hey-email-servic...

Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#75
post #48

Ruthless move by Apple - but brands like HBO should just take Netflix's queue and not allow in-app purchases. I was actually surprised to learn some of the app native brands mentioned (Tinder, Bumble) even had a way to sign-up for a subscription outside of the app. Seems like they would actually benefit from apple placing adds.

Which is why I see this will be a non-issue if on Dec 9th the anti-steering goes away. Then Apple places ad->user downloads->app says “hey it’s cheaper on tinder’s website”->user decides for themselves

Unless the app itself cost money to download, then it's to late.

You could create a bootstrap page after first install, bit that makes it feel like unfair cause the app was 'free' on the app store.

So once again Apple got it all figured out how to make stuff difficult for creators and make money while doing it

Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Money corrupts everything" BS. One of the only things Ayn Rand got right was her view of money: it is one of the greatest forces for good humans have ever invented. Money allows us to settle our disputes without violence; money is what enables peaceful trade; money is how we moved beyond palace economies. Sure, money can corrupt some things, but on the whole money has likely saved many lives and in all likelihood th…

Money is nothing but a sophisticated barter system. Instead of “I will give you 3 apples from my tree for a dozen eggs from your hens”, there is an indirection through a standardized property - money. Now we can say my apples are worth 4 shekels each and your eggs are worth 1 shekel each, and we can still agree on the same transaction. The difference (some would argue, improvement) is that shekels have a worth of the…

> Money is nothing but a sophisticated barter system.

Money is the core of a distributed optimisation system. How does society decide whether to fix a pothole, eat some oranges, advertise a game? The hugely complex chain of suppliers is balanced via money - every actor in the chain is optimising locally using profit as the objective function. Legal agreements are the mechanism to ensure the money flows for the correct goods/services, and society sets constraints (laws/regulations) to enforce goals that are not monetary.

The economics 101 narrative for how money was created is an extremely limited view.

Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#77

This is monopolistic behavior all the way. Let's leverage our cash to make it more expensive to get customers, and force app publishers to sell their product through our channel. This needs to be stopped. Now.

How? Apple is spending it’s money to help promote apps on it’s service, i feel like people attack apple whatever they do. But doesn’t this help defend a 30% app fee, when apple is also paying marketing costs to help the app get more customers through it’s service?

Not if it doesn't add another 30% of customers.

Not even taking in account the rise of advertising for the app creators self, the loses you have from not being able to redirect to your own website, giving specific incentives that Apple doesn't allow etc etc etc.

So no, it's not just bashing, and that's the reason Apple does it secretly

Re: Apple buying Google ads for high-value subscription apps

#78
Sorry for the mildly off-topic comment, but does anyone else find the writing horrible, almost impenetrable? The first sentence alone seems to have four or five bizarre syntactic and semantic ambiguities. I really have no idea what it's supposed to mean.
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