Always interesting reading these ad (blocking) threads. As someone who's worked in the industry for a while and now working on change, some thoughts:
1) Content costs money to produce. No way around that. Only option is pay directly or indirectly (via ads). What we need is better facilitators of both.
2) Ads are not going anywhere. The industry is not "in trouble" or imploding. There are dozens of ways around adblock and much of adtech is actually run behind the scenes server-to-server. It's not impossible to bring it 100% server-side and serve the final page as a mix of content + ads. This is effectively what happens with native apps already and there's an increasing amount of sponsored content. Content consumption is way up with billions of ad clicks, video plays and articles read everyday. The ad industry is stronger than ever.
3) Blame for the current situation is shared by all. Publishers should have better standards. Ad networks should use better formats and engineering. Advertisers should buy better stuff and know where/what is actually running. Just follow the money - buyers > networks > pubs with about a dozen layers in the middle, everyone trying to make the people who pay them happy. Users are not in this chain unfortunately.
4) Payments are not a magical solution. Most people do not want to pay, even if you might and the web is too granular for site-specific subscriptions which requires a scalable 3rd party. This is VERY hard to do considering the mechanics of the internet but there are things in the works like Google's Contributor program. Sadly results have NOT been great because any amount of money adds friction and most editorial/news content does not provide replay value like a music track would, but there is promise with network scale, bundling and the option to choose the level of ads/payment involved as your browse.
5) Browsing via ads is far more anonymous than payments, which involve credit cards which means name, address, birthdays, purchase history, credit history, etc. Contrary to lot of FUD, ad networks usually rely on 3rd party companies for data and they mostly focus on wide demographics and interests. If you're worried about privacy, then look at Google and Facebook who are both the de facto leaders in adtech primarily because of all the data users willing give them. Those are the companies that know who you really are on every device.
6) Finally I just want to say that the industry is not stupid or clueless, it's just massive (150B+) with lots of politics and back-room deals. Any industry this size usually takes years or decades to adapt and there's still a lot to figure out so change will be slow but ultimately the old guard will be retired and better stuff will come along. It's accelerating now so that's a good sign. I know everyone thinks they can do better with some brilliant idea and flip things around instantly but it's just not that simple. Please remember there are plenty of smart, talented, hard-working people (just like you!) that are working on this. I promise we will figure it out.
Appreciate the comment. I always try to give an honest state of the ad industry and its machinations but any comment that doesn't align with "advertising is evil" seems to get downvoted.
1) Content costs money to produce. No way around that. Only option is pay directly or indirectly (via ads). What we need is better facilitators of both.
2) Ads are not going anywhere. The industry is not "in trouble" or imploding. There are dozens of ways around adblock and much of adtech is actually run behind the scenes server-to-server. It's not impossible to bring it 100% server-side and serve the final page as a mix of content + ads. This is effectively what happens with native apps already and there's an increasing amount of sponsored content. Content consumption is way up with billions of ad clicks, video plays and articles read everyday. The ad industry is stronger than ever.
3) Blame for the current situation is shared by all. Publishers should have better standards. Ad networks should use better formats and engineering. Advertisers should buy better stuff and know where/what is actually running. Just follow the money - buyers > networks > pubs with about a dozen layers in the middle, everyone trying to make the people who pay them happy. Users are not in this chain unfortunately.
4) Payments are not a magical solution. Most people do not want to pay, even if you might and the web is too granular for site-specific subscriptions which requires a scalable 3rd party. This is VERY hard to do considering the mechanics of the internet but there are things in the works like Google's Contributor program. Sadly results have NOT been great because any amount of money adds friction and most editorial/news content does not provide replay value like a music track would, but there is promise with network scale, bundling and the option to choose the level of ads/payment involved as your browse.
5) Browsing via ads is far more anonymous than payments, which involve credit cards which means name, address, birthdays, purchase history, credit history, etc. Contrary to lot of FUD, ad networks usually rely on 3rd party companies for data and they mostly focus on wide demographics and interests. If you're worried about privacy, then look at Google and Facebook who are both the de facto leaders in adtech primarily because of all the data users willing give them. Those are the companies that know who you really are on every device.
6) Finally I just want to say that the industry is not stupid or clueless, it's just massive (150B+) with lots of politics and back-room deals. Any industry this size usually takes years or decades to adapt and there's still a lot to figure out so change will be slow but ultimately the old guard will be retired and better stuff will come along. It's accelerating now so that's a good sign. I know everyone thinks they can do better with some brilliant idea and flip things around instantly but it's just not that simple. Please remember there are plenty of smart, talented, hard-working people (just like you!) that are working on this. I promise we will figure it out.