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Inconvenient opinion in the adware-fueled tech world, but ad income isn't a stable or safe source of income, and it's likely they're feeling that, and therefore

Inconvenient opinion in the adware-fueled tech world, but ad income isn't a stable or safe source of income, and it's likely they're feeling that, and therefore jacking up the price for the engine. The big tech companies themselves feel it and spend a lot of money on "Other Bets". Noob consumers may click ads, but after a while they program their brain to filter them out automatically. Or occasionally filter them out using technological measures. I bet that most ad clicks are by mistake or similar (especially ads in Unity games (which AFAIK are interstitial video ads)), or the user wasn't realizing what they were clicking on was an ad (noob users, or e.g. ads at the top of Google results, which used to be much easier to distinguish from actual results). Most of my ad clicks are by mistake (due to bad page layout, or there just happened to be an ad where I happened to click), some (a handful of times per year at best) are to satisfy curiosity. And maybe a single one in my lifetime actually led to a purchase. Google ads started out text-only, now they're pretty jarring on average. Guess why. However, there's a limit to how jarring you can make ads before consumers say bye-bye. Unity ads are probably way over the limit, Google are sort of tip-toeing along the line (or let's say they're over the line for a minority, and not quite for the rest).

codetrotter 3y ago
> ad income isn't a stable or safe source of income True, and it’s not even just about the ads being annoying even. Regulators are catching on to the privacy problems tied to online advertising. Perhaps Unity is seeing this too, and have concluded that regulators might come for their ad revenue one day.
doctorpangloss 3y ago
> Noob consumers may click ads, but after a while they program their brain to filter them out automatically. Ads are not just about clicks. Half of all spending is brand advertising. Noobs don’t click random SMB ads, and yet that’s like 40% of spending on mobile. There are people who are “superclickers” and also super buyers. They’re just a really expensive audience to target, obviously. Anyway, you’re extrapolating from your sole experience with ads. It is a super big ecosystem with a lot of rationality, as ridiculous as that sounds. It is growing a lot still, digital ad spending grows like $130b a year around now, which is the highest it’s ever been. So I don’t know, you’re not saying stuff that is substantiated in truth.
- MiguelX413 3y ago
  Do you mean that it has grown that amount or to that amount?
johnnyanmac 3y ago
>Inconvenient opinion in the adware-fueled tech world, but ad income isn't a stable or safe source of income, and it's likely they're feeling that, and therefore jacking up the price for the engine You're right, but to expand: Apple's privacy changes at the beginning of 2022 screwed over a lot of adtech, and now the rise of AI is making ad providers even more speculative of certain types of content. I think Adtech is recovering now but for a company like Unity who relies on ads, it dealt them a huge blow for the last 18 months. That's probably what promtpted the merger/aquisition and started its plans into how it can extract more from its devs.

codetrotter 3y ago

> ad income isn't a stable or safe source of income True, and it’s not even just about the ads being annoying even. Regulators are catching on to the privacy problems tied to online advertising. Perhaps Unity is seeing this too, and have concluded that regulators might come for their ad revenue one day.

doctorpangloss 3y ago

> Noob consumers may click ads, but after a while they program their brain to filter them out automatically. Ads are not just about clicks. Half of all spending is brand advertising. Noobs don’t click random SMB ads, and yet that’s like 40% of spending on mobile. There are people who are “superclickers” and also super buyers. They’re just a really expensive audience to target, obviously. Anyway, you’re extrapolating from your sole experience with ads. It is a super big ecosystem with a lot of rationality, as ridiculous as that sounds. It is growing a lot still, digital ad spending grows like $130b a year around now, which is the highest it’s ever been. So I don’t know, you’re not saying stuff that is substantiated in truth.

MiguelX413 3y ago
Do you mean that it has grown that amount or to that amount?

johnnyanmac 3y ago

>Inconvenient opinion in the adware-fueled tech world, but ad income isn't a stable or safe source of income, and it's likely they're feeling that, and therefore jacking up the price for the engine You're right, but to expand: Apple's privacy changes at the beginning of 2022 screwed over a lot of adtech, and now the rise of AI is making ad providers even more speculative of certain types of content. I think Adtech is recovering now but for a company like Unity who relies on ads, it dealt them a huge blow for the last 18 months. That's probably what promtpted the merger/aquisition and started its plans into how it can extract more from its devs.