The Internet stumbled into the advertising model for two key reasons: ease of implementation and marketability. As Ethan Zuckerman describes in “The Internet’s Original Sin,” the benefits of this approach lay in the fact that startups could easily get an advertising-based business model up and running and sell the promise of revenue through advertising to investors. In fact, advertisements on the Internet as a whole relies on narratives, from those original stories of the advertising model pitched when seeking funding for companies like Tripod.com to “investor storytime” involved in touting increasingly invasive advertisements as revenue gold mines. And these narratives persist, drawing in advertisers and investors even in the face of no clear benefits from ads targeted based on demographics and measly per-user profits. However, the advertising model also brings with it major threats. As new companies push to differentiate themselves in a sea of advertising-based organizations, they find success in delving further into personal data, sometimes using this data to create echo chambers through highly personalized experiences. As Zuckerman highlights, advertising also leads to companies prioritizing cursory user involvement via mouse clicks rather than any meaningful measure of engagement, shaping the way news is conveyed online.
In our product, we have the opportunity to thoughtfully consider the advertising model for a learning-focused IDE. Implementing targeted advertising remains simple and straightforward, and it enables us to offer our platform for free. However, advertising and the collection of personal data involved run contrary to our solution’s values and mission. In a tool designed for new learners, advertisements are an unwelcome and potentially discouraging distraction, further increasing the barrier to entry for programming. Storing personalized data about students’ mistakes and failures for the purposes of pushing ads can also further drive users away from our platform or from programming as a whole.
