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Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

pluralistic.net

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Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#21

Post by rainsford »

sharkweek wrote: post #15
spicyjpeg wrote: post #10

I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…

I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…

I definitely agree there is a market for that, but the increasing problem is how consumers discover your product and sort through the trash heap of cheap alternatives. Google is useless these days for finding product reviews, Amazon largely just shows you keyboard-smash Chinese brands unless you already know what brand you're looking for, and legitimate review sites like Wirecutter have a hard time keeping up or covering all the products (also you can't find them unless you already know they exist).

I actually wonder if this will drive at least higher end consumers more towards the pre-Internet shopping word or mouth or personal experience approach to finding good products. For a while there the Internet allowed you to more easily discover and sort through new products and brands with a reasonable level of confidence so your horizons could broaden beyond products your friends and family recommended. Now the zone is so flooded with crap that the Internet seems less useful than it was 10 years ago for that task, which may lead to a reversion to more pre-Internet approaches to products, even if you might still buy it online.

The real untapped market could be a curated version of Amazon, with reviews you could trust and a high proportion of the products being legitimate brands you could rely on.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#22

Post by flappyeagle »

sharkweek wrote: post #15
spicyjpeg wrote: post #10

I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…

I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…

Buy from places with a robust service program. You can ask the vendor if they provide this. You don't need to overthink it.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#24

Post by ClumsyPilot »

pibechorro wrote: post #6
VeninVidiaVicii wrote: post #5

> Passing a federal privacy law would end surveillance advertising at the stroke of a pen Unlikely—breaking the laws would likely just become a business cost, and make everything even more expensive for everyone.

This. People like slapping laws on issues when the outcome is usually higher costs in the form of never shrinking burocrazys, little to no actual enforcement (unless you are rich or connected) and the red tape involved in compliance will likely make it worse. The answer is by adopting different behavior on our end. Add blockers avoiding services litterer in ads (its why i no longer use Instagram, google search, etc)

> The answer is by adopting different behavior on our end.

This tactic has not succeeded even once since written records began. Did snake oil salesmen disappear because we ran out of gullible people?

Give me one example when this approach succeeded, without any corresponding legislation

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#25

Post by [deleted] »

germinalphrase wrote: post #19
sharkweek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…

“ I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality” Often those products do exist, but you need to become an “expert in X” to find them. Oh… you want to buy a high quality leather [whatever], better start learning about leather grades, leather tanneries, stitching thread, stitching types… so it doesn’t blow out in a year. Except we can’t all become experts in all pr…

[deleted]

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#26

Post by stareatgoats »

jfk13 wrote: post #13
stareatgoats wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Props for the heads-up to "headline-only readers". > a largely bureaucratic way to extract extra money from Google/Meta/Amazon in the EU This can not be overstated. The EU should concentrate on creating things of value of their own, like privacy first services , not constantly prioritizing leeching off innovation and progress in other countries. Speaking as a concerned European here, with plenty of criticism of the w…

Just curious: do you regard the Google/Meta/Amazon advertising machines as "innovation and progress"? Or in any sense "things of value"?

The issue is not dichotomic. There is value in enabling advertisements for products and services, the problem is in the unfettered overreach: the grotesque amassing of personal information and the near unchecked marketing of products that are (or close to) scams.

Case in point: the cryptocurrency scams that littered Facebook as late as a few months ago (I don't think they have ceased but I was kicked out then, maybe because I habitually reported these scams to no effect - except being bombarded with even more of them ...).

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#27

Post by mschuster91 »

spicyjpeg wrote: post #10

I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…

> But, I get it, the tech giants are all about quantity-over-quality and Facebook's ad revenue would drop to basically nothing (by their standards) if they started vetting each ad campaign manually, so here we are.

Facebook makes well over 20 billion dollars in net profits annually. They could easily invest a couple billion dollars into moderating better advertising and content, but since "user happiness" and "cost externalized to society" (e.g. people injured by bad products, cost of buying a new gadget because the old one barely lasted a year, costs of viral "challenges") is harder to quantify than "amount of dollars in profit", they all don't.

This is why government regulation is needed: to hold companies accountable for externalized costs.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#28

Post by mirekrusin »

sharkweek wrote: post #15
spicyjpeg wrote: post #10

I consider this phenomenon part of what I like to call the "Amazon syndrome", even though Amazon is far from being the only culprit. As China started flooding the rest of the world with cheap but decent products mass-produced in a random factory in Shenzhen, people turned away from brands they used to trust and towards no-name options from the likes of "Kxbnheb" or "Ypknwoj" in order to save a buck. Eventually the bi…

I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…

Transparency of Galaxus/Digitec in Switzerland is pretty good with historic price charts, returns rating for suppliers etc. It does look like simple raw transparency is the key to all of that crap.

Some years from now (probably less than more) people will realise and start using cryptographic identities and cryptographic attestations for all internet comms - provable purchase, provable delivery by mailing service, provable single person identity etc. - (zero knowledge!) provable everything.

I mean why nobody wrote a blog post about it yet - it has "AI" and "Blockchain" in the title and for once it actually does make sense.

You can bundle up "fake news solution" into it as well if needed.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#29

Post by mschuster91 »

germinalphrase wrote: post #19
sharkweek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve got a take: I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality.” I desperately want to spend more money on a product that will stand the test of time but it’s so hard to find them at times. Sure there will always be a majority of shoppers who want the cheapest thing as fast as they can get it and they won’t mind if they have to buy 3 of them every year, but I thi…

“ I think the current gap in the market for a lot of product areas is “more expensive but high quality” Often those products do exist, but you need to become an “expert in X” to find them. Oh… you want to buy a high quality leather [whatever], better start learning about leather grades, leather tanneries, stitching thread, stitching types… so it doesn’t blow out in a year. Except we can’t all become experts in all pr…

> Often those products do exist, but you need to become an “expert in X” to find them.

Or you rely on media and, in countries where that's available, stuff like the government-backed, independent "Stiftung Warentest" in Germany ("foundation for testing products").

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#30

Post by nlh »

I hate to be one of those "you lost me at the second paragraph" kind of guys, but....you lost me at the second paragraph:

  > stuff that's pushed to you via targeted ads costs an average of 10 percent more, 
  > and it significantly more likely to come from a vendor with a poor rating 
  > from the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB is pay for play organization whose ratings mean little more than "they paid their membership dues" or "they responded to complaints quickly". You can get a million complaints, but if you reply quickly to consumers you keep your A+ rating. You can also get zero complaints but cancel your BBB membership and Ohhhhhh what a shame you've got an F rating.
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