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Marc Andreesen said that Facebook doesn't run brand advertising by design. Anyone know why this is the case? Even though I don't like advertising generally, I'

• sam_in_nyc 18y ago
  The name of the game at Facebook is building a giant company over the course of a decade. They're looking to get billions using facebook. So, any user that quits facebook now, taking into account that the growth is based on the current number of users, actually means that many more users won't join in the future. If you're planning things around a decade of growth, then you come to think of one user leaving facebook now as 10-100 users leaving facebook by a decade from now. My guess is the ad system they have now is just to test the waters... get the team learning the ins and outs, improving the system's algorithms and reporting capabilities, etc. Running branded ads is much more of a significant move: they're clearly ads, and not so much some sort of pseudo-relevant text ad. In other words, branded ads are much harder (as a user) to ignore, and would lead to a stifle in growth -- the absolute last thing that Facebook wants.
  • antiismist 18y ago
    Building the company long term does appear to be their strategy. But their ads are so low quality that they are, in fact, distracting. Surely running some nice creatives would be better?