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I'm ok with cheaper products that are funded with ads. I'm not ok with not having the option to pay more to not see ads. - How can I pay microsoft to never see

by Joeri 5y ago

I'm ok with cheaper products that are funded with ads. I'm not ok with not having the option to pay more to not see ads. - How can I pay microsoft to never see an ad in windows? (paying for office 365 gets rid of most of them, but not all) - How can I pay my cable provider to not see unskippable ads in on-demand content? - How can I pay my newspaper to have an app that doesn't show me an ad every couple of pages? - How can I pay google to just show me the results, without filling the majority of the page with ads? (Paper cut: this used to exist, but google got rid of it before I ever found out it existed.)

cogman10 5y ago
Agreed. The fact that all software seems to be migrating towards being totally funded by ads or subscriptions is distressing. I just want to pay a fixed price and own something again. It drives me nuts that now-a-days everything is about rent seeking or shoving ads into view (or both, see streaming media services).
lotsofpulp 5y ago
By giving you the option of paying to avoid ads, the entity selling ads drastically lowers the price of their remaining ads since the people buying ads are very interested in advertising to those who have the ability to not pay for ads.
- stronglikedan 5y ago
  Huh, insightful! I never thought of it that way.
- justin_oaks 5y ago
  Perhaps people buying ads are interested in advertising to people with the money to avoid the ads... but is it wise to? I would be interested to see how effective ads are for different groups of people. Are the people who are paying to get rid of the ads more or less susceptible to buying products based on an ad? As a person who gets annoyed at ads, I would be LESS likely to buy something that I've seen from an intrusive ad.
  - HelixEndeavor 5y ago
    Same. Even if I get an ad for a product that actually interests me, if it's interrupted my experience against my will, I will seek out their competitor to buy the same product lmao. "Okay, that's cool, I want this, but not from you."
- 542458 5y ago
  So I’ve seen this argument before, and I kind of get it but… shouldn’t there be some dollar value that equals the expected value of the ads, above which they’d be better off accepting payment instead of ads? I get that it might be somewhat higher than we’d expect, but surely that number can’t be all that high?
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    It would not be feasible to figure that out for each and every person, so the only practical way is to break the audience into various groups that advertisers pay to reach. Theoretically, you could break down these groups and offer no ads, then some ads, then some more ads, etc, but the more complicated you make it, the more people you turn away at the same time. Hence the most optimal solution for the seller is to sell a product/service to both customers and advertisers. However, technology gives sellers better opportunity to group people in various tranches and sell differently, so maybe we will see a more accurate price point develop.
jabbany 5y ago
This also potentially gives rise to perverse incentives like the one described in this comic: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-01-12 https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-01-12 Basically if there's an option to remove ads the platform hosting ads will be incentivized to pick _worse_ ads to get people to pay up the removal fee. A lot F2P smartphone games are examples of this in action... they offer a way to remove ads by paying but then in return have some of the worst unskippable ads before you've paid.

by Joeri 5y ago

cogman10 5y ago

Agreed. The fact that all software seems to be migrating towards being totally funded by ads or subscriptions is distressing. I just want to pay a fixed price and own something again. It drives me nuts that now-a-days everything is about rent seeking or shoving ads into view (or both, see streaming media services).

lotsofpulp 5y ago

By giving you the option of paying to avoid ads, the entity selling ads drastically lowers the price of their remaining ads since the people buying ads are very interested in advertising to those who have the ability to not pay for ads.

stronglikedan 5y ago
Huh, insightful! I never thought of it that way.
justin_oaks 5y ago
Perhaps people buying ads are interested in advertising to people with the money to avoid the ads... but is it wise to? I would be interested to see how effective ads are for different groups of people. Are the people who are paying to get rid of the ads more or less susceptible to buying products based on an ad? As a person who gets annoyed at ads, I would be LESS likely to buy something that I've seen from an intrusive ad.
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  Same. Even if I get an ad for a product that actually interests me, if it's interrupted my experience against my will, I will seek out their competitor to buy the same product lmao. "Okay, that's cool, I want this, but not from you."
542458 5y ago
So I’ve seen this argument before, and I kind of get it but… shouldn’t there be some dollar value that equals the expected value of the ads, above which they’d be better off accepting payment instead of ads? I get that it might be somewhat higher than we’d expect, but surely that number can’t be all that high?
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  It would not be feasible to figure that out for each and every person, so the only practical way is to break the audience into various groups that advertisers pay to reach. Theoretically, you could break down these groups and offer no ads, then some ads, then some more ads, etc, but the more complicated you make it, the more people you turn away at the same time. Hence the most optimal solution for the seller is to sell a product/service to both customers and advertisers. However, technology gives sellers better opportunity to group people in various tranches and sell differently, so maybe we will see a more accurate price point develop.

jabbany 5y ago

This also potentially gives rise to perverse incentives like the one described in this comic: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-01-12 https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-01-12 Basically if there's an option to remove ads the platform hosting ads will be incentivized to pick _worse_ ads to get people to pay up the removal fee. A lot F2P smartphone games are examples of this in action... they offer a way to remove ads by paying but then in return have some of the worst unskippable ads before you've paid.