Yeah it’s huge. Lots of small niche businesses in our area lost their route for finding new customers (General advertising too expensive for their market demo.).
I’m not sure where that tangent came from but that certainly wouldn’t be the lesson learned.
The lesson learned is that these small “brands” that can only exist due to adware (fake demand) will eventually be culled by increases in prices or de-amplification of their products.
If your “brand” is one of these then you should be learning that you need to actually make a good product at a good price that doesn’t rely on advertising to succeed in your marketplace. Otherwise you are always at risk of being squeezed and potentially shut down.
Many (certainly not all) of these companies are parasites in that the rely on Meta to utilize algorithms to get you addicted and alter your purchasing habits. They don’t actually offer a good product at a good price, they offer copies of other products with different labels, or in some cases outright, disposable junk.
They did, but the explosion of very specific businesses is almost entirely down to Google and Facebook changing the cost structure for these businesses by providing global advertising reach for companies that are small but have products that can be purchased anywhere.
The philosophical lesson is that certain businesses just can’t exist without targeted advertisements, and that society might decide that is a price they are willing to pay.
This feels like a cheap take. Consider any number of small businesses just starting out (a local juice bar, a fitness service, a mobile app, a game...). They have a good product that makes their customers happy. The problem is they only have 5 customers and that won't pay the bills. They could hope that they just get lucky and people just discover them (it happens but its rare), or they can go out and promote their product. So they invest in marketing and sometimes this means buying ads. Can this business exist without targeted ads? Of course it can, but the odds are stacked against them. Saying they can't exist is an exaggeration.
This is why I don’t understand people who are criticizing the pivot. Why focus on revenue that won’t be there if you don’t have your own dedicated hardware platform?
Yes, XR as a whole has a long way to go still, but it’s obvious that it’s the future
The main effect of that button is blocking the measurement of whether your ad click turned into a purchase, which is important because pricing ads based on conversions is more efficient than charging for impressions or clicks.
“Relevant” ads are sort of a red herring. Ad personalization matters, but commercially it’s less important than conversion measurement. Notably, Apple asks for permission before showing personalized ads, but never asks for permission to track conversions (while blocking competitors from tracking conversions by default).
Less targeted ads are less likely to psychologically manipulate me in to spending money. I'd like an option to only show me ads I have no chance of spending money for.
It speaks to how good targeted adtech is. When I don't give them unlimited access to my metadata, the ad quality plummets. They really can give you "good" ads if you let them. But now they have to waste money on untargeted ads for me lmao.
> objectively this means you still get ads just less releavnt ones, no?
business might choose to not show ads at all vs showing irrlevent ads. Surely there is a downside and risk to showing ads, a risk that cannot be taken willy nilly.