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Maybe, but ad prices going down, Amazon cutting affiliation commissions, clickbait race to the bottom etc. has happened over a period of the last ten years anyw

Maybe, but ad prices going down, Amazon cutting affiliation commissions, clickbait race to the bottom etc. has happened over a period of the last ten years anyway and is unrelated to GDPR. It hasn't exactly resulted in quality content, or financial stability for content creators, either. A situation where your average page contains tens of tracking scripts wasn't sustainable much longer. If anything, GDPR should be seen as an opportunity to disrupt the quasi-monopolistic online ad market.

downandout 8y ago
If anything, GDPR should be seen as an opportunity to disrupt the quasi-monopolistic online ad market. The problem is that the market itself is shrinking (as we speak) as a result of GDPR. There won't be much of a market left to disrupt. Ad targeting got as invasive as it did because that was the only way to make it profitable. The moment that ads stop becoming profitable, advertisers will pull out. This won't be gradual thing for most companies - this will be a next week type of thing. Few companies can afford to light money on fire in the form of ad spend if they can't recoup it. Some ads might still work in the EU, but it will be a dramatically smaller market within a month or two.
- tannhaeuser 8y ago
  I think that's a misunderstanding of what the market is in the first place. If there ever was an ad budget, it'll go elsewhere (native advertising, direct sponsoring, whatever). It might be that big media, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink portals with a large target audience get a cut back, to the benefit of small, focused sites and maybe also paywalled content. I'd say that could be another welcome collateral effect of GDPR, and give us back the federated Web we lost, though I'm not sure it'll be world-wide any longer given different incentives in US and EU markets, let alone the Chinese and regional (such as Russian and Turkish) markets.
  - downandout 8y ago
    If there ever was an ad budget, it'll go elsewhere (native advertising, direct sponsoring, whatever). I'm not exactly sure what you mean here. There was quite a bit of money being spent on advertising to people in the EU on May 24th. Due to GDPR, many of the advertisers that were spending this money will no longer be able to make a profit from this activity. They will therefore cease that spend, and the EU online ad market will dramatically shrink as a result. The EU companies that were receiving the money from those advertisers will no longer receive it, and many EU publishers will go out of business.
    - KozmoNau7 8y ago
      If your business model depends on systematically violating people's right privacy, then it needs to die ASAP. Some ad-dependent leeches will die off, good riddance. Let others take their place, with a privacy-friendly model.
      - joering2 8y ago
        I love this approach pushing every advertiser and publisher into spit bucket. An analogy here would be someone hating cars' tag readers in public. Law gets passed its illegal, yay! Then 2 months later your car payment goes up 30% and you scratching your head. Yeah well since they couldn't recover enough cars from people who don't pay, they had to adjust their financial models and you are the one to pony up for it. GDPR will wipe out many niche blogs that make few hundred bucks a month top and - as this article clearly points out - will ironically help companies like Google to make more money and jack up pricing for remaining ads, as the whole ad network will get much thinner.
        KozmoNau7 8y ago
        If I'm completely honest, I wish the marketing and advertising industries would simply die off completely. I don't need businesses to tell me what I "need" to buy, in order to feel fulfilled. >"An analogy here would be someone hating cars' tag readers in public. Law gets passed its illegal, yay! Then 2 months later your car payment goes up 30% and you scratching your head. Yeah well since they couldn't recover enough cars from people who don't pay, they had to adjust their financial models and you are the one to pony up for it." Maybe they should have shown some responsibility, and not just pushed unrealistic loans on every Joe Six-pack who walks through the door. Also, this culture of instant gratification that advertisers and money lenders have created is truly vicious. It has become culturally accepted to just take another loan to buy stuff you "need" (read: desire, to one-up your peers), never mind the consequences. Try saving up instead or (shock and horror!) simply doing without the trivial material possession in question. You'll be tired of it in a short while anyway. >"GDPR will wipe out many niche blogs" That is purely unfounded speculation on your part.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  >" Ad targeting got as invasive as it did because that was the only way to make it profitable. The moment that ads stop becoming profitable, advertisers will pull out." Good. The situation was absolutely unacceptable, and I'm glad the EU decided to shake it up.
lajhsdfkl 8y ago
>If anything, GDPR should be seen as an opportunity to disrupt the quasi-monopolistic online ad market. It's amazing to me how people manage to fool themselves into thinking there is hope when the world is crumbling around them. If Google can't make ads profitable in the EU what makes you think some tiny European company will be able to disrupt the ad market? How would they even do it without tracking? I can see the conversation with major brands now EU Ad Startup - "Trust us, the ads you are paying for are performing great. We are very confident that they are driving conversions on your website." Brand- "Ok, do you have any numbers to prove we are receiving conversions due to your ads?" EU Ad Startup - "No as that would be illegal under GDPR, but please trust our business."
- camillomiller 8y ago
  Which is how the paper and TV ads industry worked for more than half a century, forcing brands to push creative limits in creating campaigns that we regard sometimes as a pinnacle of arts and media culture. Just because the Internet lets you laser focus a campaign by profiling the shit out of people, it doesn’t mean that is how things should work.
  - lajhsdfkl 8y ago
    > Which is how the paper and TV ads industry worked for more than half a century, forcing brands to push creative limits in creating campaigns that we regard sometimes as a pinnacle of arts and media culture. Just because the Internet lets you laser focus a campaign by profiling the shit out of people, it doesn’t mean that is how things should work. How did the paper and tv industry work? Oh yeah, advertisers would crowd around and bid up the largest players. Small niche products would receive little to no revenue and die quick deaths. That is what I suspect will happen in the EU. Without tracking Advertisers will be unable to know how their ads are performing. Without metrics such as conversions which require end to end tracking advertisers will need to rely on the reputation of the platform. Products such as google and facebook will receive significant attention from advertisers. The tiny blog you enjoy reading that is barely scraping by will receive very little.

downandout 8y ago

If anything, GDPR should be seen as an opportunity to disrupt the quasi-monopolistic online ad market. The problem is that the market itself is shrinking (as we speak) as a result of GDPR. There won't be much of a market left to disrupt. Ad targeting got as invasive as it did because that was the only way to make it profitable. The moment that ads stop becoming profitable, advertisers will pull out. This won't be gradual thing for most companies - this will be a next week type of thing. Few companies can afford to light money on fire in the form of ad spend if they can't recoup it. Some ads might still work in the EU, but it will be a dramatically smaller market within a month or two.

tannhaeuser 8y ago
I think that's a misunderstanding of what the market is in the first place. If there ever was an ad budget, it'll go elsewhere (native advertising, direct sponsoring, whatever). It might be that big media, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink portals with a large target audience get a cut back, to the benefit of small, focused sites and maybe also paywalled content. I'd say that could be another welcome collateral effect of GDPR, and give us back the federated Web we lost, though I'm not sure it'll be world-wide any longer given different incentives in US and EU markets, let alone the Chinese and regional (such as Russian and Turkish) markets.
- downandout 8y ago
  If there ever was an ad budget, it'll go elsewhere (native advertising, direct sponsoring, whatever). I'm not exactly sure what you mean here. There was quite a bit of money being spent on advertising to people in the EU on May 24th. Due to GDPR, many of the advertisers that were spending this money will no longer be able to make a profit from this activity. They will therefore cease that spend, and the EU online ad market will dramatically shrink as a result. The EU companies that were receiving the money from those advertisers will no longer receive it, and many EU publishers will go out of business.
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    If your business model depends on systematically violating people's right privacy, then it needs to die ASAP. Some ad-dependent leeches will die off, good riddance. Let others take their place, with a privacy-friendly model.
    - joering2 8y ago
      I love this approach pushing every advertiser and publisher into spit bucket. An analogy here would be someone hating cars' tag readers in public. Law gets passed its illegal, yay! Then 2 months later your car payment goes up 30% and you scratching your head. Yeah well since they couldn't recover enough cars from people who don't pay, they had to adjust their financial models and you are the one to pony up for it. GDPR will wipe out many niche blogs that make few hundred bucks a month top and - as this article clearly points out - will ironically help companies like Google to make more money and jack up pricing for remaining ads, as the whole ad network will get much thinner.
      - KozmoNau7 8y ago
        If I'm completely honest, I wish the marketing and advertising industries would simply die off completely. I don't need businesses to tell me what I "need" to buy, in order to feel fulfilled. >"An analogy here would be someone hating cars' tag readers in public. Law gets passed its illegal, yay! Then 2 months later your car payment goes up 30% and you scratching your head. Yeah well since they couldn't recover enough cars from people who don't pay, they had to adjust their financial models and you are the one to pony up for it." Maybe they should have shown some responsibility, and not just pushed unrealistic loans on every Joe Six-pack who walks through the door. Also, this culture of instant gratification that advertisers and money lenders have created is truly vicious. It has become culturally accepted to just take another loan to buy stuff you "need" (read: desire, to one-up your peers), never mind the consequences. Try saving up instead or (shock and horror!) simply doing without the trivial material possession in question. You'll be tired of it in a short while anyway. >"GDPR will wipe out many niche blogs" That is purely unfounded speculation on your part.
KozmoNau7 8y ago
>" Ad targeting got as invasive as it did because that was the only way to make it profitable. The moment that ads stop becoming profitable, advertisers will pull out." Good. The situation was absolutely unacceptable, and I'm glad the EU decided to shake it up.

lajhsdfkl 8y ago

>If anything, GDPR should be seen as an opportunity to disrupt the quasi-monopolistic online ad market. It's amazing to me how people manage to fool themselves into thinking there is hope when the world is crumbling around them. If Google can't make ads profitable in the EU what makes you think some tiny European company will be able to disrupt the ad market? How would they even do it without tracking? I can see the conversation with major brands now EU Ad Startup - "Trust us, the ads you are paying for are performing great. We are very confident that they are driving conversions on your website." Brand- "Ok, do you have any numbers to prove we are receiving conversions due to your ads?" EU Ad Startup - "No as that would be illegal under GDPR, but please trust our business."

camillomiller 8y ago
Which is how the paper and TV ads industry worked for more than half a century, forcing brands to push creative limits in creating campaigns that we regard sometimes as a pinnacle of arts and media culture. Just because the Internet lets you laser focus a campaign by profiling the shit out of people, it doesn’t mean that is how things should work.
- lajhsdfkl 8y ago
  > Which is how the paper and TV ads industry worked for more than half a century, forcing brands to push creative limits in creating campaigns that we regard sometimes as a pinnacle of arts and media culture. Just because the Internet lets you laser focus a campaign by profiling the shit out of people, it doesn’t mean that is how things should work. How did the paper and tv industry work? Oh yeah, advertisers would crowd around and bid up the largest players. Small niche products would receive little to no revenue and die quick deaths. That is what I suspect will happen in the EU. Without tracking Advertisers will be unable to know how their ads are performing. Without metrics such as conversions which require end to end tracking advertisers will need to rely on the reputation of the platform. Products such as google and facebook will receive significant attention from advertisers. The tiny blog you enjoy reading that is barely scraping by will receive very little.