Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection

Re:Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection by tsimionescu on Saturday August 24, 2019 @02:10AM (#20785557)

Unfortunately, historical data suggests that ads are the only viable way to run a highly-profitable content delivery business. Look at newspapers and television - major, profitable ones have always been ad-driven,and that is despite the fact that they also had a physical cost.

Newspapers especially fit your model of micro-payments: each newspaper is usually a minuscule amount of money, but that is never enough to sustain it.

There is also the problem of incentives - even if your customers are paying to access the content, if you can then ALSO mix ads with the content, you are guaranteed more money, so businesses will usually be inclined to do so.

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Re:Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection by jazzyjackson on Saturday August 24, 2019 @03:11AM (#20785749)

Newspapers were not journalists who wanted to place ads to pay for their salaries, they were admen who hired writers journalists to get people to pick up their advertisements.

Similarly, the free web is mostly content produced by people with little interest in getting paid (see livejournal, tumblr, blogger, pre-monetized everything: youtube, tiktok) and the providers are not simply trying to cover costs, they are trying to become billion dollar platforms.

All I'm trying to say is there's a vibrant internet to be had without prioritizing profitability and allowing ourselves to be subject to surveillance.

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Re:Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection by tsimionescu on Saturday August 24, 2019 @04:42AM (#20786022)

I absolutely agree! I was just trying to point out that there was never any ad-free past at have strayed from.

Perhaps though there is an ad-free future at could strive towards. I doubt it will happen within the current capitalist framework.

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