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That's a popular quip, but I think it's actually a form of thought-terminating cliche. If you want, they're clients in the sense that a government torturer's vi
by philipov 5y ago
That's a popular quip, but I think it's actually a form of thought-terminating cliche. If you want, they're clients in the sense that a government torturer's victim is their client.
- ineedasername 5y agoI think that whoever is paying for something is the true client. I also think that calling something thought-terminating can, itself, be thought terminating. In this case, a way of dismissing a commonly made point under the assumption that I have not thought through the issue on a much deeper level, but I have done so. We may simply disagree on our conclusions.
- philipov 5y agoUsers of facebook are paying for something, they're just not paying for it with cash. They're paying for it with their personal data.
- ineedasername 5y agoThat's not revenue. From Facebook's perspective, that's an input, a resource they have to obtain. Users are a supplier of raw material that Facebook distills & refines and sells on to the customers that pay them actual money. Like any business, they have to maintain a good relationship with their suppliers. In this case they have to provide a platform that users return to over & over again. But they optimize their business towards revenue generation, not suppliers.