On one hand the incessant need to market things can be actually positive, offsetting service expenses, allowing things to be cheaper. Streaming is a perfect example of this, as people don’t seem to realise just how expensive it is to maintain the infrastructure for it compared to traditional cable infrastructure, not to mention keeping the apps maintained and bugfixed etc., and then we haven’t even talked about things like content licencing fees, residuals, and so on. Residuals alone mean that a single user can stream enough in just one month to “spend” their whole annual subscription fee on a single actor’s residuals (this is technically unlikely, as one would need to stream a singular TV show or movie 24/7 for 30 days, but still possible).
And obviously people want to pay less. The least possible, that is. Netflix at $5.99 was a steal. Disrupting cable, globally. But that price was also only possible because of various venture capitalists investing heavily in Netflix, which allowed them to pay for the service mostly from that money, and keep prices low to acquire more users. The recent hikes (all the way up to what, $20?) are the result of venture capital drying up, as Netflix went from a market-shaker startup to revenue generating machine. Which is the point of capitalism, isn’t it? Take an ide and make profit/revenue off it.
So how do you offset these increases? By involving a third party who’s willing to pay you, in return for inserting their service into yours, essentially providing your userbase to them. This would mostly be… Advertisers. Marketing.
The problem is that advertising is a cutthroat business, with intense (and incredibly dumb) KPIs to fulfill. For which they need targeting, for which they need data. And this constant crusade for absolutely pinpointed ads that result in the most sales is what’s making it such a disgusting business. It’s not enough to shove ads in your face, those ads HAVE to be perfectly tailored to you, and for that, every smidge of information will be utilised against you.
And this is where I’m torn. On one hand, taking these fuckers’ money to make services we do want, more affordable, is great. On the other hand, them wanting to know literally everything about us, and weaponising it against us, is fucking disgusting.
They are not showing ads for fun. They are showing them to sell stuff. People save $5 on Netflix and then spend $1000 on stupid shit they saw in the ads. Paying more for content without ads lets you escape the consumerist mindset and save money long term. Of course majority of people don’t want that. They are hooked on quick dopamine from buying another toy on Amazon and ads help them find new shit to buy. Other people simply can’t afford to avoid ads and are constantly brainwashed by then into buying one brand over another. Yes, I guess they do get cheap content in exchange but I still find it sad. The entire industry could die tomorrow and we would loose nothing of value.
Oh I fully agree with you. Marketing in general is one of the most evil business segments - only a notch above phone scammers, really. All of it is edged out not to actually market a product but to sell it to you no matter what. Doesn’t matter if you need it, or if you can afford it, or if what they say about the product is true or not, the goal is to sell sell sell. Nothing else matters but taking your money.
I feel incredibly split on ads.
On one hand the incessant need to market things can be actually positive, offsetting service expenses, allowing things to be cheaper. Streaming is a perfect example of this, as people don’t seem to realise just how expensive it is to maintain the infrastructure for it compared to traditional cable infrastructure, not to mention keeping the apps maintained and bugfixed etc., and then we haven’t even talked about things like content licencing fees, residuals, and so on. Residuals alone mean that a single user can stream enough in just one month to “spend” their whole annual subscription fee on a single actor’s residuals (this is technically unlikely, as one would need to stream a singular TV show or movie 24/7 for 30 days, but still possible).
And obviously people want to pay less. The least possible, that is. Netflix at $5.99 was a steal. Disrupting cable, globally. But that price was also only possible because of various venture capitalists investing heavily in Netflix, which allowed them to pay for the service mostly from that money, and keep prices low to acquire more users. The recent hikes (all the way up to what, $20?) are the result of venture capital drying up, as Netflix went from a market-shaker startup to revenue generating machine. Which is the point of capitalism, isn’t it? Take an ide and make profit/revenue off it.
So how do you offset these increases? By involving a third party who’s willing to pay you, in return for inserting their service into yours, essentially providing your userbase to them. This would mostly be… Advertisers. Marketing.
The problem is that advertising is a cutthroat business, with intense (and incredibly dumb) KPIs to fulfill. For which they need targeting, for which they need data. And this constant crusade for absolutely pinpointed ads that result in the most sales is what’s making it such a disgusting business. It’s not enough to shove ads in your face, those ads HAVE to be perfectly tailored to you, and for that, every smidge of information will be utilised against you.
And this is where I’m torn. On one hand, taking these fuckers’ money to make services we do want, more affordable, is great. On the other hand, them wanting to know literally everything about us, and weaponising it against us, is fucking disgusting.
They are not showing ads for fun. They are showing them to sell stuff. People save $5 on Netflix and then spend $1000 on stupid shit they saw in the ads. Paying more for content without ads lets you escape the consumerist mindset and save money long term. Of course majority of people don’t want that. They are hooked on quick dopamine from buying another toy on Amazon and ads help them find new shit to buy. Other people simply can’t afford to avoid ads and are constantly brainwashed by then into buying one brand over another. Yes, I guess they do get cheap content in exchange but I still find it sad. The entire industry could die tomorrow and we would loose nothing of value.
Oh I fully agree with you. Marketing in general is one of the most evil business segments - only a notch above phone scammers, really. All of it is edged out not to actually market a product but to sell it to you no matter what. Doesn’t matter if you need it, or if you can afford it, or if what they say about the product is true or not, the goal is to sell sell sell. Nothing else matters but taking your money.