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Ads don't need to be customized to bring in revenue. Sure, it's more money if it's customized, but ads can be non-personalized; even can be entirely embedded i
by emn13 6y ago
Ads don't need to be customized to bring in revenue. Sure, it's more money if it's customized, but ads can be non-personalized; even can be entirely embedded in the app, no network needed whatsoever - that's the old newspaper model, and that worked for years.
If the upside to that model is that you manage to become the defacto platform across ios and android, I suspect the reduced add revenue is easily worth it.
Facebook simply wants more, now that they have the somewhat captive audience.
- koolba 6y agoThey still need to be shown though. WhatsApp without any user tracking and data sharing to the mothership is a pure expense. It doesn’t show ads directly in the app and a messaging platform isn’t very conducive to adding it in either.
- emn13 6y agoThey could charge (that was their original business plan), and could likely charge very little, and they could show non-personalized adds. User tracking is not necessary, merely possible.
- helsinkiandrew 6y agoI wasn't meaning to justify Facebook's use of data to customize ads just stating why. You hit the nail on the head when you said "it's more money if it's customized". If ads are 'better', they are cheaper to purchasers, will be more profitable and will give Facebook an advantage. Facebook may be big but it is competing with Google and other ad providers. It is in their interest to use every tool possible so they don't become the newspapers of tomorrow. It will take external pressure or laws to stop them doing this. That infographic just made me delete facebook and messenger (which I rarely use anyway), unfortunately I use WhatsApp for communicating with family.