Re:The next version of Safari will let users block ads on iP...
by nothis on Wednesday June 10, 2015 @09:29PM
(#9696881)
That's an interesting way to look at it, if I understand it correctly: Advertising itself is a problematic concept. Why should we weep? Everyone would be equally affected by this, it's not like someone is getting an advantage. Maybe this hurting advertising is a net positive for all of us. It forces people to actually pay for stuff directly rather than by being subconsciously tricked into buying more of the stuff advertised, later.
The worst case scenario I have seen people come up with is more sponsored articles but I doubt that is a sustainable business model. Honestly, I never understood why I can read the New York Times online for free. I'm not feeling bad about it, but it's fucking strange. Baby steps, but I really hope something like Contributor (https://www.google.com/contributor/welcome/) becomes popular. Preferably not run by google.
Not only are they paying for the end-product, but they're paying for the arms-race between advertisers as well, and that's a huge industry.
The amount of money the ad industry deals out to "content providers" must necessarily be less than the amount they get paid by their clients, which in turn must be less than the amount people paid to those clients.
If the distribution is not uniform, and some people benefit from the ad-influenced overspending of others, the business is then predatory.