I wouldn't say so; I would rather say that the internet ad industry got more concentrated and centralized around Google and Facebook and that's why for example online news industry started rapidly losing their ad revenue and switched to subscription based business model. Ad-based internet is stronger than ever.
The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
231–240 of 856 posts
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#232I agree with recent TWiT discussion on this : we've had it good for a while - the promise of free internet but all those services cost money to keep running. I don't have an issue with paying Youtube Premium Lite. Where I have an issue with the subs model is you're pay subs to so many services, YT Netflix Twitch, etc. It adds up pretty quickly, and costs way more than traditional TV used to cost. Then there's the iss…
>It adds up pretty quickly, and costs way more than traditional TV used to cost.
I have trouble understanding this complaint.
There's way more content than ever before; why wouldn't it be more expensive to get everything? You don't have to subscribe to it all, but the ability to pick and choose providers a la carte, as well as cycle subscriptions on and off seems like a huge win to consumers.
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#233I hope I won’t be faulted for not “reading” the OP, but it’s a 17 minute video. I watched a little, but I don’t understand the thesis. It does seem ironic though that on a video about the ad-based internet dying, there are several ads in the page, the video maker in the first segment has a lengthy ad where he praises whatever he is advertising, probably VPN stuff, there is a bunch of begging for paid subscribers in t…
All of that is the purely humanitarian impulse to save the ad-based internet from dying.
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#234I agree with recent TWiT discussion on this : we've had it good for a while - the promise of free internet but all those services cost money to keep running. I don't have an issue with paying Youtube Premium Lite. Where I have an issue with the subs model is you're pay subs to so many services, YT Netflix Twitch, etc. It adds up pretty quickly, and costs way more than traditional TV used to cost. Then there's the iss…
Don’t underestimate how much cable TV costs: I did my budget recently and added up all my services together, having Netflix (highest tier), YT Premium (family, includes music streaming), Discovery+ (ad-free), and Hulu (ad-free), an all comes in at about $62.
That’s about the same price as live cable as a standalone product, and yet cable has advertisements which none of the above services have.
About the only complaint you might have is that I haven’t covered every single television studio (not included: Max, Paramount+, Disney+), but you could always rotate subscriptions in and out and still have a lot of them active at the same time.
Cable really just is that bad. Or, alternative take, cable sucks your dollars away and sends them to live sports and cable news.
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#235I work in the ad industry. I have some expertise both on witnessing the alleged decline and counter-acting it. Before anyone asks about my moral compass I do not like ads, I never have, but they're an inevitability. The problems big ad tech face are unique and very hard especially w.r.t. to data. Anyway, ads are not dying. By and large ad quality is getting better. There are several companies that exist now to pre-sc…
This is what I'm expecting to be coming soon, a barrage of articles blaming and shaming users for not wanting to be bombarded by ads.
> if you're a content leech watch a couple ads
No. Never. Sorry, your industry has destroyed any goodwill it ever had. I'm not just an ad blocker, I'm hostile to ads. I hate them and I hate the industry.
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#236His two examples are Twitter and Reddit whose ad revenue is dying because those two companies have made huge blunders. Elon seems to almost actively be killing Twitter (which the poster even states). Reddit screwed Apollo and then many of the most popular subreddits protested and did things like show porn on otherwise usually SFW content to prevent Reddit from showing ads and thus killing their profits. Those are big…
> Twitter and Reddit ... have made huge blunders
In addition to which - they were never that solid in the first place. They (and Facebook) are mostly just "dumb hosting" for other people's content - if the content producers leave, they don't have anything to offer. They don't even really own the content that was produced on their platform and it wouldn't have any value even if they did. There's a weak value proposition there: "we'll let you put your stuff up for people to see and even sort of promote it, but we'll run ads next to it to offset our hosting costs", but neither seemed to realize just how precarious their position is/was.
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
I keep asking this because I don’t understand - how is Elon “killing” twitter? I’ve frankly not seen any difference, at all. If anything there’s slightly more activity
One thing he has done is push the paid replies to the top of every tweet. So now every tweet is full of low quality replies at the top and you have to scroll to find the higher quality ones below.
It might depend on who you follow. For the small number of people I follow who also have a small number of followers, it means that people who are more invested in Twitter show up at the top of the replies. So it hasn't made it any worse...if anything it is better. However, I could see that happening more if you are following people with millions of followers. (Though their replies have always been a mess.)
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#238I agree with recent TWiT discussion on this : we've had it good for a while - the promise of free internet but all those services cost money to keep running. I don't have an issue with paying Youtube Premium Lite. Where I have an issue with the subs model is you're pay subs to so many services, YT Netflix Twitch, etc. It adds up pretty quickly, and costs way more than traditional TV used to cost. Then there's the iss…
A problem with many paid services is that they still have ads. Was watching something with my wife the other day (I think it was on HBO streaming) and there were ads? I'm like "hang on we're paying for this, and still have to watch ads?"
It's almost like Unions of the 1950s was for workers. Its 2023 and now we need Unions for consumers.
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#239His two examples are Twitter and Reddit whose ad revenue is dying because those two companies have made huge blunders. Elon seems to almost actively be killing Twitter (which the poster even states). Reddit screwed Apollo and then many of the most popular subreddits protested and did things like show porn on otherwise usually SFW content to prevent Reddit from showing ads and thus killing their profits. Those are big…
Marketers have ruined internet with deceptive and click baity ads. I dont have a problem with ads, just dont sell my data to everyone who knocks on your companies doors. Happy to support ethical ads. Twitter ads are aweful, showing unknown, click bait ads on its platform.
I don't even have a problem with what ads I'm shown being based on some information about me. I'd happily provide additional information which I think would, if it were used, result in less ads being wasted on me (showing me ads for horror movies/game is never going to benefit the movie/game company, and I find the ads unpleasant. Not showing me ads for horror content, and showing other ads instead, should be a win-win. But the only topics google lets me restrict ads for are "gambling", "alcohol", "dating", and like one or two others that I don't remember. Maybe "parenting"?)
Re: The ad-based internet is dying, and it's getting worse in the process [video]
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
The real issue IMO is that users do not understand that ads pay for their apps. They don't want to see ads and the ads they do see they want them to be uninformed and general. They want everything free. This just encourages subscriptions. Which we're seeing become more and more common.
I would personally prefer to pay for a service with my money as opposed to my information and ads being shoved in my face. Unfortunately many services don't even give an option to pay with money, so I've been trying to find alternatives, for example I've been starting to migrate away from Gmail to Protonmail. I understand things cost money, so let me pay you for your services. I just despise ads with a passion.
> prefer to pay for a service
There was a comic (an Oatmeal comic, IIRC) where the guy goes into Starbucks and orders a $5.00 coffee, and then while drinking it picks up his phone and it asks him to pay $1.00 to access a news article and he says, "$1.00! Who do they think I am, Mark Zuckerberg?" (or something like that).
While I get the _sentiment_ behind it (especially from a webcomic guy who's producing entertaining content and not getting anything back from it), it misses a lot of the subtext of why paying for things on the internet is such a hassle. Yes, I'd probably pay $1.00 to read a news article - I pay $5.00 to buy a print magazine when I get on a plane after all - small transactions on the internet are a huge hassle. There's a lot of friction around tracking down my credit card, typing in the number, typing in all my personal info, hoping that the site doesn't store it stupidly and leak it... I don't know what the solution is there, but the way it works now ain't it.