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No, it's not always pleasant. I admit that. But you know what's less pleasant? Twitter shutting down because they can't pay the server bills. The relevant eco

by LargeWu 16y ago

No, it's not always pleasant. I admit that. But you know what's less pleasant? Twitter shutting down because they can't pay the server bills. The relevant economic concept here is opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of Twitter not showing ads is charging for their service. The next greatest opportunity cost is them not existing. So many people think the internet operates independently of the principles of economics. Well, it doesn't. And I also don't feel the analogy is apt. To use the well-worn metaphor of Twitter as cocktail party, it's like having a conversation with your friend about, say, Arduino's, and having the host, whom you don't know, walk by and say "Oh yeah website X is having a great sale on those", and then they're off again to serve Jell-O shots. I chose to go to Twitter's party, so at least I'll nod politely to the host because they're the ones providing the free booze.

joe_the_user 16y ago
No, it's not always pleasant. I admit that. But you know what's less pleasant? Twitter shutting down because they can't pay the server bills. Hey, I'm not against them monetizing. But to monetize, they have to find an ad-format that works. And to find an ad format that works, they can't pretend targeting by itself will do what they need. Realistically, for example, I think people would prefer a party where host have big "Bud" posters up to a party where the host interrupts individual conversations semi-relevant ads. Twitter can monetize with plain, ordinary advertising. The problem is this be admitting that Twitter's segment of the Internet is basically the relatively low-value part of the Internet and that Google's part is the higher-value part. That wouldn't make Twitter impossible, it would just take away from the huge valuation it has. And that could be a problem for a lot of people.

by LargeWu 16y ago

joe_the_user 16y ago

No, it's not always pleasant. I admit that. But you know what's less pleasant? Twitter shutting down because they can't pay the server bills. Hey, I'm not against them monetizing. But to monetize, they have to find an ad-format that works. And to find an ad format that works, they can't pretend targeting by itself will do what they need. Realistically, for example, I think people would prefer a party where host have big "Bud" posters up to a party where the host interrupts individual conversations semi-relevant ads. Twitter can monetize with plain, ordinary advertising. The problem is this be admitting that Twitter's segment of the Internet is basically the relatively low-value part of the Internet and that Google's part is the higher-value part. That wouldn't make Twitter impossible, it would just take away from the huge valuation it has. And that could be a problem for a lot of people.