Welcome to the ad-free internet
economist.com
Welcome to the ad-free internet
1–10 of 334 posts
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#2Ironic that this article is paywalled. Here's a non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/0C0RQ
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#3Ironic that this article is paywalled. Here's a non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/0C0RQ
Not really, that fact supports the premise of the article.
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#4Ironic that this article is paywalled. Here's a non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/0C0RQ
"Social networks are not the only medium allowing the group that advertisers most covet—the better-off with money to splurge—to wriggle beyond their reach"
I wonder what the median disposable income of people who use archive links to circumvent paywalls is?
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#5Ironic that this article is paywalled. Here's a non-paywalled link: https://archive.is/0C0RQ
"Social networks are not the only medium allowing the group that advertisers most covet—the better-off with money to splurge—to wriggle beyond their reach" I wonder what the median disposable income of people who use archive links to circumvent paywalls is?
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Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#6This is nothing new but the article hits hard. I don’t want to live in a world where everyone is after my attention but a good chunk of the economy seems to depend on it. There has to be a better future than this?
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#7Is it just me or does it feel like this is actually a submarine article by WPP to kind of console its clients and tell them that it’s OK. Everything is OK and WPP is in control?
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#8Good luck with that. The ones that can afford an ad-free internet are the same group as the ones that can afford the product you are trying to sell. Promoted links, selection/ordering of posts and other mechanisms will be use to lead ad-free people to the ads, in ways that won't look like ads. It's like gravity, there are forces in play that will make things end in the same way.
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#9Does anyone know why there doesn't exist a micro-transaction capability to buy one marginal ad-free item at a time? E.g. buy just this Economist article for $0.25 rather than subscribing for the whole month?
I know there are significant issues with micro-transaction cost but I figure you could set up a little token service with minimum cash-in and cash-out amounts (say $5).
Do companies like the Economist crunch the numbers and find that they earn by more by having paying subscribers as opposed to also selling per-article? My friend and I thought about attempting a startup in this space but it seems so clearly useful and lucrative that there must be a good reason why e.g. Stripe doesn't already provide this service.
Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet
#10A 'path to profit' is the time tested lifeline of any enterprise. However this is never highlighted as it doesn't bode well with the general social psyche of humans.
For last 20 years, tech enabled startups, chose 'postpone profit' strategy adopting 'free to use' or 'ad supported' approach helped by raising high capital to build moats around the target market.
Now this trend can be either seen as a moment where the moat is complete and 'path to profit' is through captive customers. (Or) a decline/failure of the 'postpone profit' strategy accelerated by the current economic recession.
All social media and any other free to use switching to subscriptions is quite a probability now.