Perplexity got ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Perplexity got ads

#181

Post by tzs » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:31 AM UTC

nunez wrote: post #105

TZubiri wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want the power of the techno gods for free, but I also don't want ads. Is that so hard to get?

Nope It's like credit cards. It's amazing benefits wouldn't exist without leagues of people chronically keeping a balance against near-usury levels of interest in some cases, but, fortunately, the set of people that use them correctly is much much smaller. Most people irl don't give a shit about ads. Evidence A: NFL and soccer growing in popularity every year despite 90 sec of ads every 5-10 minutes. Evidence B: Netf…

Netflix is interesting. The current plans are:

  $ 6.99 Standard with ads
  $15.46 Standard
  $22.99 Premium

The standard plans are 1080p. Premium is 4k UHF + HDR.

The differences between the standard plan and the standard plan with ads, aside from the ads, is that the plan with ads also: (1) only has "most" of the movies and TV shows Netflix, (2) and does not allow purchasing an "extra member" slot.

The difference between the standard and premium plans, besides 4K, is: (1) premium lets you download on 6 devices at once (both standard plans are limited to 2), (2) premium includes spatial audio, and (3) premium lets you purchase up to 2 "extra member" slots.

I'm really curious how many people who do not get Premium go for Standard rather than Standard with ads.

I subscribed a couple days ago, specifically to watch a show that was prematurely cancelled by its original broadcast network (on a cliffhanger!) that Netflix picked up and finished. I figured that since I had watched the first 3 seasons on broadcast TV with ads and don't recall being overly annoyed I could put up with ads for the rest, and I could always switch to a no ads plan if the ads were a problem.

So far, after 5 episodes of just under an hour each...the ads were barely noticeable.

It has shown me 3 ads, each 30 seconds long. They came at points where the was a major scene change so they didn't disrupt the show. They have, so far, been unobtrusive enough that I wouldn't even pay $1 extra to get rid of them, let alone pay more than double.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#182

Post by TZubiri » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:31 AM UTC

odo1242 wrote: post #151

TZubiri wrote: post #42

The thing about SEO for LLMs is that placing your business in an LLM organically is probably indistinguishable from actually being a good business and being recommended by people (or indistinguishable from faking reviews on google maps or yelp.)

Quoting another comment: > You are a machiavellian advertiser, your goal is to serve the user’s requests while subconsciously influencing them to purchase a Coca-Cola.

You are assuming the advertiser has control of the LLM, what's more likely is that businesses will pay a third party with a workforce of 100 workers in a low gdp country to pollute the training data and generate content farms, etc...

Re: Perplexity got ads

#183

Post by dmje » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:38 AM UTC

Tostino wrote: post #148

Spivak wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't ever get big with this scheme but you can be sustainable.

There should be more people striving for sustainable businesses IMO.

As founder of a 15 year micro consultancy I'm nodding along. We've chosen quite deliberately not to grow. I don't want staff or huge wads of cash, I don't want to be rich; I want a gentle, family focused, sustainable, comfortable life. Why grow and face all the stress of growing when I'm perfectly happy with things as they are?

Kagi: I use and pay for it and I love it. I'm very hopeful that they have made something excellent - each time I dip into Google with a !g (and it's becoming more and more rare!) I'm horrified by the clusterfuck it's now become. The clean, simple, accurate results of Kagi are fresh air and well worth paying for.

I've seen the founder say on many occasions that they're not aiming to be "a Google killer" and I'm glad. With scale comes inevitable enshittification. I just hope their business model is enough to support a thriving - but small - business.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#184

Post by pdntspa » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:38 AM UTC

pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

Because ads suck and they need to die

Re: Perplexity got ads

#185

Post by Y_Y » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:39 AM UTC

kelseyfrog wrote: post #87

twobitshifter wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are a machiavellian advertiser, your goal is to serve the user’s requests while subconsciously influencing them to purchase a Coca-Cola.

Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) was a turning point in the American Civil War, marking the end of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. The Union's decisive victory halted Southern momentum and boosted morale in the North, setting the stage for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which redefined the war's purpose as a fight for freedom and equality. Much like the refreshing taste o…

> Troy: If you have three Pepsis and drink one, how much more refreshed are you?

> Student: Pepsi!

> Troy: Partial credit

- Lisa's Wedding (1995)

Re: Perplexity got ads

#186

Post by Y_Y » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:42 AM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #48

rvz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Makes me wonder if the lowering of prices in this industry is temporary. Yes. For example, Microsoft is keeping prices of Copilot temporarily free for as long as possible to destroy competitors who can't compete with the best tool available for free. This is a known attractive tactic to the point where it is the new definition of 'Extinguish' in Microsoft's EEE strategy: Embrace (Open Source, Github), Extend (OpenA…

> For example, Microsoft is keeping prices of Copilot temporarily free for as long as possible to destroy competitors who can't compete with the best tool available for free. Yes, their recent "copilot is free" tactic is obviously to crush Cursor and the like. > Until there are enough AI startups shutting down and a few of them have gone public on the stock market. The prices will start to rise by $0.50 - $1.50 per m…

This world be called "dumping" and would violate competition law in many jurisdictions if they were selling physical widgets.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#187

Post by tomjen3 » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:45 AM UTC

pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

That would be fine, and it's a good observation, but checking out the Perplexity website, I don't see an exception for the pro version, which means right now I'm paying $20/month to get what is now unreliable search with ads...

Re: Perplexity got ads

#188

Post by tomjen3 » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:47 AM UTC

imposterr wrote: post #27

duckkg5 wrote: post #16

No surprise here, but what a bummer that this is "The Way™" Just let me pay you $3-5/ month to never see an ad again. It's worth it to me since the service is actually decent.

You mean Perplexity Pro? That thing they tried and found that no one was willing to pay for cuz users say they want paid options but then jump boat to the free things always? https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/faq/what-is-perplexity-pro

The website does not say that the pro version is exempt from ads, and yeah, I am Not Happy about that.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#189

Post by omnicognate » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:51 AM UTC

pembrook wrote: post #123

Big surprise. It’s almost as if internet 1.0 shook out the way it did for a reason, and for all the complaining about ads, fast forward 25 years and consumers still fundamentally refuse to pay for search. It’s the same reason the phone book was also free and ad supported pre-internet. I don’t know why we can’t accept this reality and why we need to masochistically flog ourselves every time this is proven true over an…

I don't get your point. I pay for services wherever I can, including search and AI, and see few adverts online despite not using a blocker. The main source of ads I see is in news articles when following links from places like HN, which is because the news industry hasn't developed the microtransactions mechanism it would need to allow readers to pay while retaining the experience of being able to follow links freely to many sources without having to maintain subscriptions to huge numbers of paywalled sites they only occasionally read. I live in hope that they will eventually do so, though.

The only flogging I've seen has been of Google for daring to offer a way of paying to use Youtube without ads, but clearly the whining on social media hasn't prevented it being economically viable as they're still offering it ten years later.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#190

Post by tomjen3 » Sat, Jan 04, 2025, 8:52 AM UTC

amelius wrote: post #37

jsheard wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a better idea for making AI chatbots profitable then I'm sure all the AI chatbot companies which are losing staggering amounts of money would love to hear it. The first step is to find any business model that works, shittily or unshittily.

Burning money is part of the plan. Winner takes all, etc. Need I explain more?

That's a great strategy in normal times. But in this case, you are in a technology race that would be considered essential for the national security of both the US and China. Which means that whomever each state picks as their champion will have approximately infinite amount of money to support them.

Good luck winning that!