Thread · 9 tweets · 17 Dec 2018

I highly recommend taking a few minutes to read @julien51's excellent "The End of the Ad-Supported Web — What if we got the business model of the web wrong?" medium.com/unlock-protoco…

You're no doubt used to arguments about ads being an active and growing threat to privacy — which is true — but Julien asks a different question: are ads even good business? He makes a good case that they aren't.

To begin with, the adtech world is spectacularly bad at effective self-regulation. Because of that, it has failed to enforce effective control over the simple problem of ad resource consumption. Without even looking at privacy, adtech is basically encouraging ad blockers.

These numbers are related: • G+FB represent 75% of external referrers • G has 65% of the browser market with a browser designed for tracking • G has 88% of the mobile OS market with an OS that's a tracking device • G+FB capture more than 90% of the digital ad market growth

Or, as @julien51 puts it, "the companies which control ad revenues are also the ones which control traffic distribution". And the ones that control what your data protection is.

At least ads must be making money, right? Only if you have stupendous scale. Julien puts it best:

Julien also has a good point that the current manner in which advertising works incentivises volume over quality. All the metrics are built in favour of systems that can add volume without compromising quality (search, social) which works *against* content.

Julien and his crew are working on an alternative, I recommend you check it out: unlock-protocol.com.

But it's not the only alternative: another way of advertising is possible. Brands should come to realise you can't build a relationship on stalking. I think there can be a future for digital advertising — but adtech has to first stop shooting itself in every body part.