5 ms·

Probably the only way they can hire decent talent anymore.

pavlov 8y ago
I’ve joined Facebook today as part of the Vidpresso team. The opportunity to build something that can reach a large group of users is attractive: basically everything I’ve worked on for the past 15 years has been very niche. As long as the SV giants have that global scale and keep demonstrating that they value engineers, I don’t think they’ll have trouble hiring.
- jjeaff 8y ago
  Does it matter that the end goal will be to funnel all the innovation, countless developer hours, and blood sweat and tears into selling ads?
  - pavlov 8y ago
    For live video, nobody really knows how to make selling ads even work. It’s actually an interesting challenge to try to come up with formats where ad monetization makes sense for the content producer — I’m convinced they’d have to be compelling formats for audiences first.
    - imron 8y ago
      > It’s actually an interesting challenge to try to come up with formats where ad monetization makes sense for the content producer So that would be a 'no' to jjeaf's question then.
    - arthurofbabylon 8y ago
      ... [cricket] ... [pavlov questions the meaning of his/her work] ... [cricket]
      - pavlov 8y ago
        You don’t know anything about me. I’ve spent years working on various products that were paid by users, not advertisers. Guess what? Selling software licenses is very hard. You can’t blame me for not trying though. Video is traditionally ad supported — after all, nobody ever paid for broadcast TV. But preroll/midroll ads that interrupt content don’t work well in live online video. Interactivity offers potential new avenues to sell people stuff that they might actually want. I don’t know if it will work, but it’s worth exploring.
        blub 8y ago
        Why is it so hard to admit thay you sold out and are working for an evil company? Yes, you're not killing baby seals or helping give people cancer. You're just working for the company that surveils a large part of humanity, tries to get them addicted to tapping stuff, deceives them into buying stuff, "accidentally" gets involved into election manipulation, etc. They're also working hard at getting their hands on medical and banking information. All around great guys, those Facebook employees.
        dang 8y ago
        Maybe you're right; but attacking someone personally is not an ok way to express how right you are on HN. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        blub 8y ago
        I don't want to be right, I want the people that are abusing others to realise that they are doing a bad thing. My message was too inflammatory and I have to rethink my approach to not run afoul of the rules. This has to be said though: a large reason people think it's ok to work for companies like Facebook is because there's almost no social pressure against it, including here.
      - dang 8y ago
    - josephjrobison 8y ago
      Here how it would work: the advertiser, let’s say Taco Bell, sponsors a banner ad that covers the bottom 10% of the live video. Boom solved.
      - pavlov 8y ago
        Go ask media companies what their viewership numbers in this medium are and how much they want to get paid to carry a 10% screenspace ad for the entire show’s duration. Then go ask Taco Bell how much they’d pay for that ad given the audience size. If the numbers align so that you’ll get a nice margin too, why not start a company?

I’ve joined Facebook today as part of the Vidpresso team. The opportunity to build something that can reach a large group of users is attractive: basically everything I’ve worked on for the past 15 years has been very niche. As long as the SV giants have that global scale and keep demonstrating that they value engineers, I don’t think they’ll have trouble hiring.

jjeaff 8y ago
Does it matter that the end goal will be to funnel all the innovation, countless developer hours, and blood sweat and tears into selling ads?
- pavlov 8y ago
  For live video, nobody really knows how to make selling ads even work. It’s actually an interesting challenge to try to come up with formats where ad monetization makes sense for the content producer — I’m convinced they’d have to be compelling formats for audiences first.
  - imron 8y ago
    > It’s actually an interesting challenge to try to come up with formats where ad monetization makes sense for the content producer So that would be a 'no' to jjeaf's question then.
  - arthurofbabylon 8y ago
    ... [cricket] ... [pavlov questions the meaning of his/her work] ... [cricket]
    - pavlov 8y ago
      You don’t know anything about me. I’ve spent years working on various products that were paid by users, not advertisers. Guess what? Selling software licenses is very hard. You can’t blame me for not trying though. Video is traditionally ad supported — after all, nobody ever paid for broadcast TV. But preroll/midroll ads that interrupt content don’t work well in live online video. Interactivity offers potential new avenues to sell people stuff that they might actually want. I don’t know if it will work, but it’s worth exploring.
      - blub 8y ago
        Why is it so hard to admit thay you sold out and are working for an evil company? Yes, you're not killing baby seals or helping give people cancer. You're just working for the company that surveils a large part of humanity, tries to get them addicted to tapping stuff, deceives them into buying stuff, "accidentally" gets involved into election manipulation, etc. They're also working hard at getting their hands on medical and banking information. All around great guys, those Facebook employees.
        dang 8y ago
        Maybe you're right; but attacking someone personally is not an ok way to express how right you are on HN. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
        blub 8y ago
        I don't want to be right, I want the people that are abusing others to realise that they are doing a bad thing. My message was too inflammatory and I have to rethink my approach to not run afoul of the rules. This has to be said though: a large reason people think it's ok to work for companies like Facebook is because there's almost no social pressure against it, including here.
    - dang 8y ago
  - josephjrobison 8y ago
    Here how it would work: the advertiser, let’s say Taco Bell, sponsors a banner ad that covers the bottom 10% of the live video. Boom solved.
    - pavlov 8y ago
      Go ask media companies what their viewership numbers in this medium are and how much they want to get paid to carry a 10% screenspace ad for the entire show’s duration. Then go ask Taco Bell how much they’d pay for that ad given the audience size. If the numbers align so that you’ll get a nice margin too, why not start a company?