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Apple, Facebook, and Mobile Advertising
- zepto 6y agoAn extraordinary cynical view in this piece. It’s true, ‘people like free stuff’. It’s also true that nothing in the ecosystem is actually free at all. It’s paid for by advertising which is a cost that is hidden, and has deleterious effects on both the ecosystem as a whole, and on how our media works. You can certainly make the case that Facebook having less control is to Apple’s advantage. But if you are going to make the case that Facebook having more control is good for consumers, or the ecosystem as a whole, you have to actually make that case. Simply saying ‘people like free stuff’ so anything that makes advertising less efficient harms consumers is complete bullshit. Inefficient advertising just makes things like word of mouth more important. This is a good thing because it reduces the advantage that money affords in terms of acquiring customers and tilts more in the direction of competition on quality and value.