Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#131

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 4:11 AM UTC

_ktx2 wrote: post #128

wombatmobile wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft's evolution into adtech is the natural evolution of industrial capitalism. In the 19th century, mercantile giants evolved into banks, because after expanding to the limits of their trading turf, that's how they'd get secure, predictable Return On Capital (ROC). In the 20th century, industrial giants evolved into fintech services, because after expanding to the limits of their markets that's how they'd get R…

> Microsoft's evolution into adtech is the natural evolution of industrial capitalism. How is advertising synonymous with capitalism? If it were communism or socialism we'd likely just call advertising propaganda, but is there a real difference? To be clear, even if Microsoft was born in a reality where America was Democratic Socialist, wouldn't they be doing the same thing just a slightly different purpose?

Advertising is becoming a bigger share of the global economy. At the same time, the big players are making up a bigger share of the ad market.

It's not absurd to envision a world in the next 30 years in which advertising is >33% of global GDP - and maybe 2-5 companies control >50% of that market.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#132

Post by clh1126 » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 4:14 AM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #131

_ktx2 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft's evolution into adtech is the natural evolution of industrial capitalism. How is advertising synonymous with capitalism? If it were communism or socialism we'd likely just call advertising propaganda, but is there a real difference? To be clear, even if Microsoft was born in a reality where America was Democratic Socialist, wouldn't they be doing the same thing just a slightly different purpose?

Advertising is becoming a bigger share of the global economy. At the same time, the big players are making up a bigger share of the ad market. It's not absurd to envision a world in the next 30 years in which advertising is >33% of global GDP - and maybe 2-5 companies control >50% of that market.

It's also not absurd to imagine a world where advertising is the next internet bubble.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#133

Post by rootsu » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 4:25 AM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #87

Adtech veteran here. This is week old news, and was expected by the industry for awhile ever since ATT failed to integrate Appnexus properly. Not sure why this thread has turned into so many off-topic complaints about Microsoft but this acquisition itself makes perfect sense. The duopoly of Google and Facebook has weakened with the changing landscape of mobile devices, tracking protection, and data regulation. Amazon…

Off topic question,

Have you heard about Mediaocean? They are an old adtech company. I have an interview with them but I don't really understand what they do.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#134

Post by bee_rider » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:18 AM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #13

Fundamentally it's just difficult to maintain the modern internet without advertising. You have content creators busting their backs with millions of hours of video and content for free, and hosted for free. Obviously there needs to be a way for all of that to be paid for. Whether due to income equality, laziness, greed or something else, the vast majority of people aren't going to engage in micro transactions.

So you're telling me we can get rid of the youtube influencer culture at the same time as we get rid of creepy ad tech? Nice!

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#135

Post by manigandham » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:22 AM UTC

rootsu wrote: post #133

manigandham wrote: post #87

Adtech veteran here. This is week old news, and was expected by the industry for awhile ever since ATT failed to integrate Appnexus properly. Not sure why this thread has turned into so many off-topic complaints about Microsoft but this acquisition itself makes perfect sense. The duopoly of Google and Facebook has weakened with the changing landscape of mobile devices, tracking protection, and data regulation. Amazon…

Off topic question, Have you heard about Mediaocean? They are an old adtech company. I have an interview with them but I don't really understand what they do.

They make software to run advertising operations for big agencies and advertisers.

It manages ad campaigns, audiences, billing and finances, workflows, optimization, comps, etc. It integrates with major ad platforms which run the actual ads, and collects performance data from APIs and reports, and puts it all together in a single place for analysis.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#136

Post by bee_rider » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:28 AM UTC

blinkingled wrote: post #4

Why? Windows 11 as an advertising business wasn't nasty enough for Microsoft? I installed it on one of my sparingly used machines and it's as blatant as it gets. The Edge push, all the installed crapware, the telemetry and God knows what else - either way it didn't feel like I was running my own OS - instead it felt like I was running a rented one at a Kinkos.

I really don't know how to feel about watching Microsoft degrade into yet another shady ad company. On one hand, they were never good. On the other, it is still somehow a loss to transform from an engineering company with evil business practices, to an ad company with evil business practices.

Also, can't help but feel bad for whatever engineers have remained there. OS development is rough in a world where people are apparently only willing to pay for Apple's offering.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#137

Post by MarkSweep » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:38 AM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #77

MarkSweep wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least some sanity prevailed and the VS installer is now a WPF app. Blazor on the desktop is a bit of a head scratcher.

> At least some sanity prevailed and the VS installer is now a WPF app. It is an Electron app, check its use of nodejs when running it.

Sorry I don't have a better source for this:

https://twitter.com/mrhestew/status/1369356955009966080

And just looking at the installer in Process Explorer, it is now a single process that does not load any Chromium or Node DLLs.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#138

Post by kjellsbells » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:40 AM UTC

I do wonder sometimes just how close microsoft are going to get to att in the service of azure. the network cloud deal. the xandr deal. each deal makes att more important to microsoft leadership as their flagship client. i wonder idly if there is a sweet spot beyond which it actively scares away the other mega telcos to aws.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#139

Post by dotancohen » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:48 AM UTC

clh1126 wrote: post #132

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising is becoming a bigger share of the global economy. At the same time, the big players are making up a bigger share of the ad market. It's not absurd to envision a world in the next 30 years in which advertising is >33% of global GDP - and maybe 2-5 companies control >50% of that market.

It's also not absurd to imagine a world where advertising is the next internet bubble.

The next? Online advertising was hit severely in 2008. My adsense income went from paying my mortgage to barely paying for my VPS that year.

Re: Microsoft buys Xandr, AT&T’s advanced advertising business

#140

Post by dotancohen » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 5:49 AM UTC

type0 wrote: post #110

adamcstephens wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave my in-laws a Chromebook for similar reasons. Either way, most people don’t need a full Windows OS

Chomebook is at least a computer, iPad is an entertainment device.

For most people.

For many professional digital artists and designers, however, the iPad is far more convenient that the traditional Wacom tablet connected to a desktop or laptop.