• DiltoGeggins [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Does anyone else find it really funny that the model just doesn't exist? The Vultures Capitalists are busting at the seems for 20 years now, the next big app is gonna break free! but no, its not.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, the profitable way to do social media is the Facebook/meta model, but I don't think most companies can pull that off or copy the meta model. And Zuckerberg blew all the meta cash on VR metaverse nonsense.

        • Bloobish [comrade/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Ad based and user data based in which data on everything and anything is sold in large user packets by certain demographic groups to ad agencies.

          • RebloodlicanDemocrip [any]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yannis Varoufakis has an interesting view of this reality - that it's digital serfdom. We are the serfs that browse many places on the internet for 'free' (living on the lord's land) and our data is our bodies being worked to farm the land. The profit ratio is the same - we get nothing but the 'privilege' of inhabiting a space, whilst they keep all the profits of our living.

            I've probably butchered the explanation somewhat, so go check it out for yourself.

          • DiltoGeggins [none/use name]
            ·
            1 year ago

            got it. so, much more intel-based, matching the ad against the user "need" or "interest" as it were. I had something similar to that happen on reddit but much more cringey. This was a couple years ago and I hadn't changed my settings to prohibit reddit selling my info to third parties. And I think also that they were less restrictive on who they sold user data to. Anyoo, I had made a comment in like a kayaking subreddit or something very topical like that completely showing absolutely no interest, just a comment basically on kayaks for whatever reason, using the term "kayaks" in my comment. The next day I was getting kayak ads sent to my gmail account. I quickly changed all my settings and it stopped, but it was quite interesting, and a proof of sorts. I posted about in on r/lifehacks and within an hour had over 1,000 likes or whatever. But all the main "front page" subs have rules that users are not allowed to post about reddit itself, so my advice got deleted. I remember feeling pretty frustrated, but also impressed by this organism's incredibly effective self-preservation techniques.

          • Mardoniush [she/her]
            ·
            1 year ago

            Except ads don't work outside the very top level agencies and brands anymore, so FB's model is also fucked in the medium term because the current digital agency model is fucked.

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, and they have their own service for each demographic that they created or bought. Facebook for boomers and family friendly profile, Instagram for younger people and hustle nonsense, WhatsApp for instant messaging. And even within those services there's stuff like Facebook marketplace, WhatsApp communities and business, Instagram video and stories, etc.

          This allows them to monopolise everything and sell nicely collected user data based on each demographic that uses the different services.

          China does something similar with Weibo and WeChat

    • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      The actual start-ups never need to profit. The VCs invest early when they are worthless, hype the shit out of them, and liquidate their positions at IPO time to start the cycle anew. A bunch of suckers get left holding newly minted overvalued stock in doomed companies.

      • DiltoGeggins [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yea, sounds right. Or as the imminent humanities scholar and Chicago saloon owner, Michael Cassius McDonald once put it, "...There's a sucker born every minute."