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Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

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Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#181

Post by projectdelphai »

falcolas wrote: post #70
veeti wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple cares so much they will take 30% of those loot box profits.

Except they kicked fortnight off the store, so they are now getting 0%. And since Fortnight is free to buy, Apple would also get $0 if forced to allow non-IAP purchases.

Weren't they already getting 0% since Epic snuck IAP outside of Apple's system into their app to bypass Apple's requirements? So Apple had no choice but to ban them. You're implying that by not kicking fortnight off the store, they'd still be getting 30%

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#182

Post by Sebb767 »

mauvehaus wrote: post #125
Sebb767 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And most of these alternatives still need an E-Mail to sign up, which loops back to gmail. Statista puts the number of its users at 1.5 billion in 2018[0]. There are some alternatives, yes, but if you ever tried to run your own mailserver you'll quickly find out that gmail users not receiving your mail is very much a problem. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/432390/active-gmail-user...

Fastmail? Protonmail? Others? It's not as though the only options are gmail and running your own mail server. They aren't free, but neither is your time to run a mail server and gmail is only gratis, not libre.

I've never said its the only option. I use a rather unknown hoster myself. But the majority of the users are with very few companies; for the US and EU gmail probably dominates the private user market.

Or, let's say it this way: If someone selfhosting his mail server doesn't receive your mail, it's his problem. If gmail users don't receive your mail, it's your problem. And that's not a sign of decentralisation.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#183

Post by XCSme »

vsareto wrote: post #128
orev wrote: post #35

Watch “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix, see how far off the rails the industry has gone, then come back and tell me that Apple is the bad guy here. Someone needs to start standing up for what’s right, and Apple is probably the only one with the size and cash reserves to be able to do it. For all the free market cheerleaders, remember this: we already have laws in place preventing or regulating businesses from engaging…

>Watch “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix I'm sorry, but that show was really, really dumb and unrealistic and I couldn't sit through it. 3 engineers (notably: cringey white dudes) are never following one single user and controlling his interactions like that and it did more harm than good by pretending it works that way. This implies someone is directly accountable, showing up to work every day and fucking with people'…

The 3 engineers are just a representation of the user-tailored AI algorithms, that are trying to optimize user engagement and session duration.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#184

Post by XCSme »

srtjstjsj wrote: post #94
Jedd wrote: post #17

Having just finished watching The Social Dilemma about fifteen minutes ago -- then hopping onto HN to satisfy the itch before bedtime (the irony is not lost) to read some commentary about Apple, Instagram, and Facebook. "There are millions of [small businesses] out there that rely on us to target customers and to reach those customers." (quote from Instagram CEO) I'm not an Instagram user / customer / product -- but…

There's nothing wrong with getting paid to help people. That's the whole moral justification for capitalism.

But there is something wrong in harming billions of people just to help a few businesses.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#185

Post by XCSme »

mola wrote: post #34
ptest1 wrote: post #15

I might be one of the few, but I like the ads I see on Instagram and have purchased lots of things via IG ads. I can’t think of any other app/site where the ads have sucked me in. I realize this is besides the point, but I thought it was worth sharing in terms of how they might be doing personalization. For me, it’s so good that it actually works.

Would you have bought these items otherwise? If the answer is no, then you were "sucked in". Google AdWords was great, you search for product X you definitely wanted to buy X, that's reasonable personalization. Now they want to know who you are, so they can optimize manipulatating you to want X even if you didn't before you saw their ad. There's a big difference between the two type of advertising, although they're b…

I think that "sucked in" shouldn't be confused to awareness.

There is one thing to manipulate someone into buying something and a different thing to just point to the existence of that product.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#186

Post by sorenjan »

falcolas wrote: post #135
sorenjan wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, Apple takes 30% of the revenue. Apple isn't standing up to Epic's gambling, they''re profiting a lot from it and their only issue with Epic seems to be that they want to keep profiting from it. The Epic and Apple case started when Epic circumvented Apple for in app purchases and lowered their prices accordingly.

They don’t get a commission for the sale of the Fortnight software, or for marketing Fortnight on their own dime; do you believe that they don’t deserve to get any commissions for providing Fortnight a platform and publicity?

If they want to charge Epic and other developers of free apps and games, that's one thing. Apple have made a calculated business decision to charge developers $99/year for those expenses, and it's not like they don't profit anything from having a large game and app library. They're not charging for providing a platform and publicity though, they are forcing developers to use their payment processing for in app purchases, which IMO does not contribute 30% of the produced value for those purchases.

But my main point was that trying to frame it as heroic Apple against evil Epic, where Apple tries to save their users from gambling by taking a large cut of the loot, isn't entirely truthful.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#187

Post by kcolford »

nogabebop23 wrote: post #159
shrewduser wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple cares about their bottom line, they're privacy focused only because it works for their business model. If they stopped being anti right to repair then maybe i'd be interested.

isn't this how we'll get privacy the easy way(tm) though, by making it a valid business model?

What do you lose by doing this though? I think a monopoly is just as dangerous as unregulated/unrestrained capitalism. I don't think taking the easy way is the right way.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#188

Post by stolsvik »

falcolas wrote: post #172
oarsinsync wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer, I have no desire for Apple to market my software for me. Fortunately for me, Apple has never chosen to highlight and market my software for me. Unfortunately for me, they’re still taking 30% of the revenue for distribution alone, and there’s absolutely no way that’s fair, given that I can self distribute on every other platform for about 4%. I already have a cloud footprint as my apps depend on it. Th…

> I have no desire for Apple to market my software for me Yet you do have a desire for it to run on Apple's hardware, under Apple's OS. And thus you have a desire to do business with them. That you disagree with their rules for doing business by itself doesn't make them the bad guy. They're offering many of the same terms offered by Microsoft, Google (Android Play store and Stadia), and Sony after all.

“Apple’s hardware”?! Is it not the customer’s hardware? We aren’t talking the cloud here, these are devices that the individual customers have already paid for. Apple should have little say in how a customer wants to use their own hardware.

Re: Dickhead of the Week: Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri

#190

Post by tatersolid »

asimov42 wrote: post #123
orev wrote: post #35

Watch “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix, see how far off the rails the industry has gone, then come back and tell me that Apple is the bad guy here. Someone needs to start standing up for what’s right, and Apple is probably the only one with the size and cash reserves to be able to do it. For all the free market cheerleaders, remember this: we already have laws in place preventing or regulating businesses from engaging…

So what about all the other gaming apps on the iOS store? Literally thousands of them are specifically designed to get (trick) kids to spend money on them. Apple is more than happy to enable In-App purchases for them and then promotes them heavily through its own advertising on the app store. How is Apple not part of the problem in this whole system?

Apple has parental controls to prevent this, and basically forces you through configuring them when you set up an iDevice account for a minor.

I have three kids and have never had an in-app or other purchase that I didn’t approve.

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