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I wonder how many commenters on HN work for businesses that in some way or another use advertising to help sustain their revenue. By the tone of every thread d
by jklinger410 4y ago
I wonder how many commenters on HN work for businesses that in some way or another use advertising to help sustain their revenue.
By the tone of every thread discussing advertising you would think the answer would be zero. But it is certainly not zero.
- mattbrewsbytes 4y agoI'm fine with advertising as a trade-off when a service is free but if I'm paying for a service why does that service have to become an ad network? Is the only answer to making money in tech to get massive traffic so you can get 1% of people that actually click on an ad and buy something? What I can't fathom is the amount of money being spent on ads, surely it must be paying off.
- jklinger410 4y agoYou can definitely consider tracking and advertising as an extra cost of any service. You are obviously free to cancel services that are too expensive for you. The answer to your second question is yes. How many newspapers do you think we would still have without digital advertising? Close to zero. What people are willing to pay for and what is actually good for themselves and society are two different things. Advertising is a capitalist way to democratize attention. I also sincerely hope everyone complaining about advertising is a hardcore socialist or communist. If not they are awfully hypocritical.