Re:A/B testing gets misused to juice metrics in the short term
by bsuvc on Tuesday July 12, 2022 @02:30PM
(#32073947)
Exactly this.
Many here are focusing on a single interaction. While the outcome of that single interaction is negative to the company, the aggregate outcome must be positive somehow, perhaps in the way you said, but it doesn't even have to be a scam or ripoff. Some products just have a higher margin and/or customer LTV.
As an individual, it is annoying, but the company is focusing only on the macro effect when it does something like this.
Suppose the site isn't concerned about the sale very much at all?
Suppose the thing that the site uses to reel people in, is a good deal that isn't very profitable to the site but what the site then tries to sell is a very profitable near-scam/ripoff. Scaring off half the ordinary customers becomes worth it to get even 10% of the customers buying the scam.
What seems like "poor optimization" can easily optimization for something and could be seen as "the scammification of the web".