I left Etsy as a member of the relatively new ads team in mid 2015. We generated a lot of revenue for the company in a very short period of time, but we made su

I left Etsy as a member of the relatively new ads team in mid 2015. We generated a lot of revenue for the company in a very short period of time, but we made sure to make the whole thing feel like Etsy - homegrown, ethical, thoughtful, etc. We made the tools mentioned in this article - the ads console and search ads. It was basically first party promoted listings where you could bid on keywords in the internal site search. We also let sellers opt into ad campaigns run through google and facebook that we helped manage through a console. It was all optional, and it was a decent equalizer for smaller shops, although it was mostly used by large shops iirc. I have no idea what the hell they're thinking with this. This is downright hostile to sellers. I spoke to a nonzero amount of sellers who were against advertising as a concept - they didn't want to be part of that machine (I think quite a few of us here can relate). Now they have no choice but to pay Etsy for this. It's a huge middle finger to the sellers and that made Etsy rich and who Etsy continually takes advantage of. This is mafia-esque style extortion where they say they're doing this for you as they take your money.