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Facebook would rather be booted out than remove data collection, because they (probably correctly) have determined that a service like theirs cannot exist witho
by MisterKent 5y ago
Facebook would rather be booted out than remove data collection, because they (probably correctly) have determined that a service like theirs cannot exist without advertising unless a global ban is created.
If they are banned in Europe, the new service will be pay to use in order to generate revenue. In which case, nobody outside Europe would use it. In which case, barely anyone inside Europe would use it.
Facebook knows this, and likely Germany knows this. So, they're really deciding whether they want Facebook or any Facebook like site to exist in Germany. I would be very surprised if Facebook lost this battle.
If you think I'm incorrect, just realize that the only way china was able to get their citizens off of Facebook was to block them entirely. And even then, nobody outside china cares to use their social media platforms.
- CGamesPlay 5y ago> the new service will be pay to use in order to generate revenue. In which case, nobody outside Europe would use it. In which case, barely anyone inside Europe would use it. WhatsApp previously was a paid app and had 500 million paying users.
- darkwizard42 5y agoTechnically... yes. But the $1/year was AFAIK not enough to cover costs.
- caterama 5y agoInteresting, so this is a lower bound on the value of your data!
- Spivak 5y agoI mean you can look up what companies make on you in their financial reports. Pinterest as an example makes about <$10 per user per year from ads.
- Leherenn 5y agoIt was only after the first year. And there were ways to bypass it if I remember correctly.
- JetSpiegel 5y agoWhat? They had like, < 100 engineers.
- rrdharan 5y agoIt had 315M DAU: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/whatsapp-hits-1-5-billion-monthly-users-19b-not-so-bad/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/whatsapp-hits-1-5-billion-...
- CGamesPlay 5y agoDAU doesn't really matter when you aren't selling attention, the number of paying customers is what matters. TC lists 450 MAU, and this article is where i got the 500 million figure from, which is also listed as MAU [0]. [0] https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/032515/whatsapp-best-facebook-purchase-ever.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/032515/whats...
- 627467 5y ago> I would be very surprised if Facebook lost this battle. What does losing the battle means for Facebook in your view? Continuing to operate in Germany after yielding to it's regulation or, leaving Germany (cutting service for German-based requests) to avoid yielding to the regulation?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dhosek 5y agoAdvertising is possible to do without invasive data collection.
- AuryGlenz 5y agoSome advertising, sure. I’ve advertised on Facebook and without being able to select people in my area that are engaged to be married it’d be utterly useless to me.
- disgruntledphd2 5y agoTo be fair though, that particular targeting option does not require third party data collection, as people announce engagements on FB, which is where they get the information from.
- kordlessagain 5y agoGermany would do well to ban all advertising based services. Fuck them all!
- YetAnotherNick 5y agoA huge chunk of internet is supported by some form of advertisement, then they will start blocking germany. Good luck finding a search engine working without ads.
- anoncake 5y agoIf ads were illegal, there would be a search engine without ads. Unless either 1. web search is not worth the money it costs to provide or 2. markets don't work.
- himinlomax 5y agoA dominant search engine without ads would have even more trouble with adversarial SEO than Google. The ads set an upper bound to the amount of effort people are going to spend to rank higher.
- teitoklien 5y agoAds can work without needing your personalised data , What’s wrong with going back to keyword data and affiliate marketing ? Duckduckgo is pretty profitable just based on that according to them. Sure not super profitable like google , but do we want this world in hands of a search engine giants ? Did people not advertise or buy things without the new internet’s atrocious crimes under the name of personalised targeting ? They did.
- kordlessagain 5y agoI’m building it.
- valyagolev 5y agoLiving here for a few years, I’m slowly getting used to a lot of really habitual, yet ultimately bad things being (almost) banned. Uncontrolled rents, video surveillance, firing people, taking pictures of people - just to name a few. Imo, not each of these bans is the ultimate good solution, but I love and respect these kind of stances. Facebook would just be one of many like that. It’s not essential, and I can’t imagine germans - or people who came here to live in a country with those values - come out on the streets in its support
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gentleman11 5y agoRead about some German history. You think they can’t handle a megalomaniac in charge of a website?
- varispeed 5y agoI think advertisement of course is a big factor, but it is a smoke screen for running an intelligence service. A company without state agencies backing wouldn't be allowed to just ignore governments, let alone a big one like German. Facebook is just an informant network and intelligence gathering op. They finance it through ads (in a similar vein as they financed Contras with drug money).