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Vietnam bans unskippable ads

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Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#661

Post by Blikkentrekker »

iammjm wrote: post #24
_jab wrote: post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

The world would definitely be better without ads. All ads are poisonous. All of them first convince you that you and your life as it is is not good enough, and that in order to be happy again you need to spend money to buy a $product.

Advertisement also more or less puts a wrench in the theory of capitalistic competition in that companies would be incentivized to create the best product for the lowest price supposedly. They're now just incentivized to create the best ad campaign which costs money and does not improve the product in any way.

Also, the existence of crippleware, where companies actually invest resources into removing features from a product is interesting. It would be interesting if we were to live in a world were both advertisement and crippleware are forbidden. It's already forbidden in many jurisdictions for various public function professions such as medical services or legal services so it's not as though it couldn't be implemented.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#662

Post by xigoi »

yibg wrote: post #629
phantasmish wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what a fucking store is for . They have catalogs. You could ask for one. If they think people will want something they will try to sell it and will tell you about it if you go looking . I see this pro-ads argument all the time and it’s so obviously-stupid that I’m truly baffled. Is this the kind of lie ad folks tell themselves so they can sleep at night?

> I see this pro-ads argument all the time and it’s so obviously-stupid that I’m truly baffled. If you're truly baffled by a view that many people share, you're probably missing something. How do you solve discoverability, especially of a new type of product or category? I invented this new gadget call "luminexel". People don't know what it is yet, because it's new. How do people find it in a catalog? Or the thing I…

> How do you solve discoverability, especially of a new type of product or category? I invented this new gadget call "luminexel". People don't know what it is yet, because it's new. How do people find it in a catalog?

You make a post on Hacker News titled “Show HN: I made this cool thing called Luminexel, check it out!” Some people will think it’s really cool and tell their friends about it. Eventually it will end up on some “curated list of awesome things” website.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#663

Post by suriya-ganesh »

kibwen wrote: post #416
suriya-ganesh wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think this. and I do run some of your suggestions. But how is the internet economy supposed to function without these micro transactions, in the form of ads. A lot of the abundance in software and technology we've seen in the past decade is possible only through this mechanism.

> But how is the internet economy supposed to function If the existence of a given industry requires the annihilation of individual privacy and the elimination of free thought, then that industry does not deserve to exist. Kill the ad industry.

And in the process kill all the possibilities the internet has empowered?

Medicine being better delivered, all the research that has been accelerated because of reducing compute and storage costs, the list is infinite.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#664

Post by Blikkentrekker »

kube-system wrote: post #316
phantasmish wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what a fucking store is for . They have catalogs. You could ask for one. If they think people will want something they will try to sell it and will tell you about it if you go looking . I see this pro-ads argument all the time and it’s so obviously-stupid that I’m truly baffled. Is this the kind of lie ad folks tell themselves so they can sleep at night?

There are no successful economies without ads. Ads are a necessary evil for effective market discovery. They should be heavily regulated but you can't effectively operate a market economy without one.

All that can be regulated though. In many jurisdictions, it's forbidden for lawyers or pharmaceutical companies to advertise their products with it being regulated what counts as an advertisement and putting oneself into the phone book or putting a big sign with “Lawyer” on one's practice is allowed but putting oneself into a magazine or on television is not.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#665

Post by suriya-ganesh »

godelski wrote: post #394
suriya-ganesh wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think this. and I do run some of your suggestions. But how is the internet economy supposed to function without these micro transactions, in the form of ads. A lot of the abundance in software and technology we've seen in the past decade is possible only through this mechanism.

I struggle with this too. I struggle less when I remind myself of how much the tech sector has grown in the past 20 years. Not even just in power and control over critical infrastructure, but in wealth. Market Cap by Year Year 0 1 2 3 4 2025 Nvidia (4.6T) Apple (3.9T) Google (3.8T) Microsoft (3.5T) Amazon (2.6T) 2020 Apple (2.3T) Microsoft (1.7T) Amazon (1.6T) Google (1.2T) Meta (777M) 2015 Apple (598M) Google (534M)…

This is sort of my line of reasoning as well.

In my own petty way. I consider this my pushback against a system that is pushing oppressive systems onto me. But really, I'm partially glad this system works and partially annoyed that this is the cost.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#666

Post by tpmoney »

strbean wrote: post #660
tpmoney wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The early web very quickly gave rise to curated directories of information and stopped working on word of mouth. Yahoo was a directory before it was a "search engine". AOL was a curated walled garden. Web rings were a thing, great for playful discovery, terrible for finding a specific thing. Heck for that matter, web ring banners are arguably just interactive "banners ads". Word of mouth also requires a high degree o…

> The early web very quickly gave rise to curated directories of information and stopped working on word of mouth. Weren't those better before ads got involved? > Web rings were a thing Aren't those literally word of mouth? > Otherwise you get things like youtube "review" channels that are just paid reviews. That would be illegal under the laws we are discussing, presumably.

> Weren't those better before ads got involved?

The directories? Ads were part of those pretty early given that they were modeled on real world directories like the Yellow Pages in the first place. Here's a webarchive of yahoo from 1996[1]. Note the big broken banner at the top with the link text "Click here for the Net Radio Promotion". AOL was pretty much always full of ads, and don't forget the old AOL "keyword" searches which were ads by another name.

> Aren't those literally word of mouth?

Sure, and they were pretty lousy at helping you find information, which is why people stopped using them in preference to search engines, even though search engines had ads. Heck one of the selling points of Google originally was that their ads would actually be relevant to you and the things you were searching for.

[1]: https://web.archive.org/web/19961022175643/http://www10.yaho...

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#667

Post by esperent »

godelski wrote: post #655
esperent wrote: post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just make sure google doesn't kill it That's what I mean. How can you make sure of that? > Is there something you're specifically interested in? No, I already have a setup that's working for me. > Would you recommend this over my setup? Well, it depends. Nextcloud is a full Google Workspace replacement basically, including files sharing, office, notes, kanban, calendar, emails, chat, video calls, photo management.…

> How can you make sure of that? https://netzro.github.io/posts/2025/Jun/08/setting-up-cronie...

Ok nice, noted in case I need it in the future. Thanks.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#668

Post by charcircuit »

kibwen wrote: post #536
charcircuit wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are ignoring the value of discovering a good or service. Increasing the customer acquisition cost for a company to infinity doesn't make them lower their prices. It makes them go out of business because they have no customers.

People are really out here acting like we didn't have a functioning economy before we invited ad companies in to parasitize global commerce. I don't give a fuck if it means "less discoverability", if I could snap my fingers and make every ad company disappear tomorrow, the world would be a better place.

It is what enables global commerce.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#669

Post by whs »

matthewsinclair wrote: post #79
_jab wrote: post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

I've often wondered what would happen if we _taxed_ advertising [0]. The same rationale applies: it'll never work, and it'll never even be tested, but I agree, it was fun to think about. [0]: https://matthewsinclair.com/blog/0177-what-if-we-taxed-adver...

In Thailand signs are taxed based on its size, text language (Thai only, No text or multilingual text and Thai text are placed lower than other languages, Multilingual text), and static/dynamic (I assume this applies to both digital and trivision).

This also not only for advertising but also normal signs like the logo of the business on buildings. You'll see most people circumvent the more expensive multilingual rate by adding small Thai text at the top of the sign.

Unrelated, but another interesting fact is that some bus stops in Bangkok are completely funded by an advertising company. Of course, they'll get the ads space for free as a result, and they only offer it in viable locations. The current governor doesn't like this idea and settle for a less fancy bus stop paid by public money.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#670

Post by Aachen »

simplicio wrote: post #624
Aachen wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ads make available a huge amount of media and services to people who would otherwise be unable to afford it. They don't. Follow the money: why do ads power free services? The advertiser needs to expect to make more money in the scenario where they run the ad as compared to where they don't. The viewer must be spending more money in response to having seen it If the viewer doesn't have the money to pay the first par…

"They don't. Follow the money: why do ads power free services? The advertiser needs to expect to make more money in the scenario where they run the ad as compared to where they don't. The viewer must be spending more money in response to having seen it" The first part is true, the second part pretty obviously isn't. Advertizers expect to net $ from ad buys, but most advertising isn't trying to increase a consumers to…

That makes sense, though you're still paying for the service or product that includes advertising as part of buying the third party product such as a beverage. If you can't afford the service or product then you're down to off-brand products that don't run ads
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