4 ms·

I bet the Facebook employees who pushed to buy Instagram are feeling pretty justified right about now. But still, I'm not sure if Instagram can be monetized to

I bet the Facebook employees who pushed to buy Instagram are feeling pretty justified right about now. But still, I'm not sure if Instagram can be monetized to the same degree as Facebook was in the last decade, especially as they continue to wreck their brand with privacy abuses (note that I'm not a privacy hawk).

fermienrico 8y ago
Instagram is better positioned for monetization because of: A) Stories and TV like content to compete with Snap B) Ads integrated into their proprietary browser (aka Instagram app) C) Sponsored live events They’ve essentially made a closed ecosystem without having to rely on a desktop browser and they’re more mobile centric than Facebook. Furthermore, Visual content is the basis for IG and it lends itself better for monetization.
- te_chris 8y ago
  From a biz perspective, yes, but it's different. If anything, IG works better for facebook and its users because it's more honest. It's a platform for photo and video sharing and loads of people just use it to voluntarily follow brands anyway. In some ways, instagram is facebook's distilled product - rather than a directory which became everything, it's just a feed of content, so the terms and user expectations are different.
cronix 8y ago
You mean to ruin a secondary platform? I've all but stopped using Instagram for the same reason I've all but stopped using FB... there are just too many ads to scroll past to see what I'm actually there to see (the people I'm friends with/following). Every other post now seems to be an ad/sponsored post. Both platforms have gone overboard to the point that I only visit maybe once/week now instead of daily. I also don't have any FB related apps on my phone since they all share data with FB and want access to every possible damn permission. I just visit the sites in my desktop browser now (and sign out when done). So, they better be charging a LOT more for the ads they show as I don't think I'm in the minority here by visiting a lot less often due to the complete over-saturation of them.
- weberc2 8y ago
  I'm not arguing that they're doing good things with it; I'm not an Instagram user. I was only observing that Instagram's rise is conveniently (for Facebook) occurring during Facebook's fall.
- nurino 8y ago
  Well, they are now on their way to also ruin WhatsApp. That could be the third platform they ruin :P
  - cronix 8y ago
    And will then be renamed to WhatWasThatApp as everyone abandons it lol
    - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
      Thanks Dad.
- executesorder66 8y ago
  I just flag every ad as spam. After a day or 2 I never saw an ad on Instagram again.
  - jvzr 8y ago
    I've been doing the same for months, and I still see ads. The only effect I see is that ads are worse & worse with every day passing. At some point I hope advertisers will understand that Facebook is wasting their money on people like me. They ought to demand to Facebook that users hostile to ads are not targeted anymore...
  - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    Me too. I see a huge number of ads on a fairly recent secondary account but none at all on my long-standing personal account.

fermienrico 8y ago

Instagram is better positioned for monetization because of: A) Stories and TV like content to compete with Snap B) Ads integrated into their proprietary browser (aka Instagram app) C) Sponsored live events They’ve essentially made a closed ecosystem without having to rely on a desktop browser and they’re more mobile centric than Facebook. Furthermore, Visual content is the basis for IG and it lends itself better for monetization.

te_chris 8y ago
From a biz perspective, yes, but it's different. If anything, IG works better for facebook and its users because it's more honest. It's a platform for photo and video sharing and loads of people just use it to voluntarily follow brands anyway. In some ways, instagram is facebook's distilled product - rather than a directory which became everything, it's just a feed of content, so the terms and user expectations are different.

cronix 8y ago

You mean to ruin a secondary platform? I've all but stopped using Instagram for the same reason I've all but stopped using FB... there are just too many ads to scroll past to see what I'm actually there to see (the people I'm friends with/following). Every other post now seems to be an ad/sponsored post. Both platforms have gone overboard to the point that I only visit maybe once/week now instead of daily. I also don't have any FB related apps on my phone since they all share data with FB and want access to every possible damn permission. I just visit the sites in my desktop browser now (and sign out when done). So, they better be charging a LOT more for the ads they show as I don't think I'm in the minority here by visiting a lot less often due to the complete over-saturation of them.

weberc2 8y ago
I'm not arguing that they're doing good things with it; I'm not an Instagram user. I was only observing that Instagram's rise is conveniently (for Facebook) occurring during Facebook's fall.
nurino 8y ago
Well, they are now on their way to also ruin WhatsApp. That could be the third platform they ruin :P
- cronix 8y ago
  And will then be renamed to WhatWasThatApp as everyone abandons it lol
  - SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
    Thanks Dad.
executesorder66 8y ago
I just flag every ad as spam. After a day or 2 I never saw an ad on Instagram again.
- jvzr 8y ago
  I've been doing the same for months, and I still see ads. The only effect I see is that ads are worse & worse with every day passing. At some point I hope advertisers will understand that Facebook is wasting their money on people like me. They ought to demand to Facebook that users hostile to ads are not targeted anymore...
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  Me too. I see a huge number of ads on a fairly recent secondary account but none at all on my long-standing personal account.