[PragmaticPulp]

The reason is simple: These companies are ad-supported. When you create an account and log in, the ads they show can be better tailored to your interests. This is especially true for companies like Pinterest, where users catalog their interests on the site.

I think this is surprising to people for two reasons:

1 - We've been told the "companies sell your data" narrative for so long that many people don't realize that Facebook and similar mega companies don't actually profit from selling your data. They target ads, and they keep their customer data close because it's their competitive advantage. Note that there are a lot of companies that do sell your data, but they're not the ones people generally think about (Facebook, etc.). It's a fundamental misunderstanding of these business models.

2 - The whole economy was unusually hot for many years, largely due to low interest rates. Funding was available everywhere in huge quantities, which drove tech companies into pure growth mode even if serving their websites came at a loss. That story doesn't work forever, though, and now we're seeing those companies turn the knobs to look for profits.

It's actually kind of amazing that we've been able to use gigantic Big Tech services, developed and operated by engineers making $$$ total compensation, for so long without actually paying for much at all. I wonder if we'll look back at this era as an unusually 'free' period of the internet, much like how we look back at the early days of VC-subsidized Uber as being very cheap relative to what it actually costs to buy these services today.

[TEP_Kim_Il_Sung]

Facebook did more than just hoard user data; They performed research to actively change user behaviour.

It is said that if you don't pay, you aren't the customer, but the product. Perhaps YOU never were the product either, but your mind and actions are?

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/facebook-ma...

[itronitron]

But the thing is, for the most part the 'big tech' companies haven't created a service/product that users are interested in paying for.

Tangentially, just last week I received an email from a product company that I'd purchased goods from before. It had probably been over a year since my last marketing email from them. I click on the link in the email to check their products, but don't buy anything primarily because I can't easily figure out the advantage of one particular product over the other. For the remainder of the week and this past weekend I have received one to two emails a day with additional offers and new products. Will I visit their website again? Probably not.

[JohnFen]

> many people don't realize that Facebook and similar mega companies don't actually profit from selling your data.

I think most people here know this. The difference doesn't actually matter as much as the companies think, though.

[HDThoreaun]

> mega companies don't actually profit from selling your data

Does anyone on HN actually believe big tech companies are selling data as opposed to using it to target ads? I thought we were over that long ago.

[itronitron]

What do you mean by 'actually profit' and 'your data' ?

For sure companies are still selling data from their platforms. Does that include what the company would consider to be a user's data? I doubt they are selling private contact data associated with their users but any user activity on their platform is likely being sold off in bulk. Whether they 'actually profit' from those deals is an accounting game.