Ethan Zuckerman’s The Original Sin is a fascinating read about the invention of pop-up advertisements and their repercussions today.
The advertising revenue model is a interesting one; it takes take users’ interests and spin them into profit—aka, make the “users work for” the company. In this way, the company gets compensated simply for people using their platform (with minimal work for the company). However, this comes with the risk of surveillance. Advertising, while still possible without surveillance, loses its essence without fully understanding the users.
In terms of our app, advertising may be a great way to generate profit. However, we want to be careful with popup ads; for many users, excessive amounts of advertisements can deter people away from a platform and cause annoyance/frustration. Furthermore, there’s the issue of surveillance. Users must be comfortable with knowing that their data is being used to curate personalized ads tailored towards thier needs.
If we are able to integrate advertising seamlessly into the app in a way that isn’t immediately obvious (such as Instagram), this may be a great revenue model for us to use. Since there’s minimal effort and essentially guarantees that even a small stream of money is coming in, we don’t have to worry too much about profit.
In terms of the internet as a whole, advertising allows for many websites to not exploit users in a more destructive manner. The reality is that every company is going to need to make money in some way; advertising is possibly the route that allows for platforms to stay the most democratized. Again, this brings up the issue of security and privacy, as users’ data are being used to curate ads.
