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Ask HN: Why is Facebook's data worth that much? How is it used?
I understand the basic idea yet I am curious as to why this data is so important and meaningful. Better ad targeting is one thing but what else?
- helmchenlord 10y agoThe advertisement industry moves an insane amount of money. People pay up to several dollars for a single potential customer ending up on their website(s).
- good_vibes 10y agoIs that it though? The whole worth of Facebook is tied to the tides of consumerism?
- helmchenlord 10y agoJup. Most of the worth of Google is still tied to advertising, they didn't even make money off of Android until a couple of years ago.
- good_vibes 10y agoI think people have a deeper relationship with Google than they do with Facebook. I don't believe there is strong loyalty in social media. Do you?
- bingojess 10y agoFB knows so much about you. You age, your likes, your friends, your location, etc. This allows for very precise targeting of ads compared with say a billboard. This combined with the amount of time it's billion plus users spend on the site.
- good_vibes 10y agoThe whole thing is built on the underlying assumption that people will remain loyal to this platform. Right?
- ljk 10y agoeven if they're not loyal to the platform, by showing the consumers ads it'll still make an impression for later
- good_vibes 10y agoImprinting by visual and social proof. Makes me wanna say...'It's a trap.'
- helmchenlord 10y agoAdvertisement platforms extend beyond single platforms. Google Ads are on every website in the Internet, and Facebook ads are on other sites too. So even if you don't have a Facebook account and never visit Facebook itself, you will see their ads and they will start following you around and start collecting data on you.
- good_vibes 10y agoI can just picture some girl I know saying, 'that Zuckerberg is a real creep. OMG. He literally follows me everywhere.'
- thenomad 10y agoPeople pay up to several hundred dollars for a single customer ending up on their website, in some industries. (Check out the pricing on Adwords for serious medical conditions some time.)
- muhlismaulana 10y agohack
- sokz 10y agoAds for lawyers have ridiculously high prices in Adwords. Since my first job was in a firm that handled marketing for personal injury lawyers, I had an impression that adwords was really expensive and ws wondering why the ads were so ubiquitous for low revenue businesses too.
- pasbesoin 10y agoAnecdote: Two days ago, I bought some drain cleaner. I paid with a credit card. This morning, for the first time, Facebook presented me with an ad for Liquid Plumber (a drain cleaner). Without my ever giving them my credit card number, they or the attendant ad agency have cross-linked my credit card with my Facebook account. :-( This may be more noticeable to me, because Facebook on my phone is one of the few places I haven't blocked ads. I don't block them out of spite; I block them because, 1) They completely distract me, when they move and make noise; 2) I've yet to encounter an ad network I trust. I simply don't do much secure stuff on my phone, and I use a separate email account on it that's not tied to anything significant. Facebook on my phone is also eerie in presenting content and ads that relate to what I've recently been doing. If they aren't outright monitoring my conversations, they are damned good at determining my location (while my GPS is turned off) and making remarkable inferences as to what the topics at hand likely were. If it weren't the default means my wide-ranging friends use to keep in touch, I'd by having a serious conversation with myself today as to whether it was time to uninstall it. I'm still debating; just don't want to fall out of touch with those friends. P.S. As has been mentioned here frequently, FB maintains shadow profiles for people who don't have Facebook accounts. Facebook is becoming a primary connection / cross-reference between market activity (e.g. shopping) and personal data (not just ZIP, age, etc. demographics, but likes and activities, and that all-important social network).
- jakobegger 10y agoSo here's the thing I don't understand: After buying some drain cleaner, the mighty machine learning algorithms created by the best of the best ivy league grads comes up with the perfect ad to show you: An ad for more draincleaner.
- newsat13 10y agoAmazon is actually really really good at this :-) They follow me all over the internet for _weeks_ to show me ads about a product that I have already purchased via amazon itself !
- 10y ago
- namechecksout 10y agoThere was this article on how Trump won the elections thanks to the very precise and narrow-targeted ads on social networks where all the right messages were shown to just the right audience. Not only Facebook gathers the private info you obviously put on your profile, but also what you like, what you respond to, what you even look at - crazy detailed statistics. This allows them sell you anything like magicians because they know everything about you and what you like and HOW you like it.