• Chris@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    75
    ·
    1 year ago

    The system seems to be;

    • Add adverts
    • Make them more intrusive
    • Add more adverts
    • Make them even more intrusive
    • Everybody is fed up with adverts because there are now more adverts than content, so introduce paid version which costs more than the company would earn on ad impressions even for a heavy user, to remove ads
    • Next step might be to add some ads to paid version?
      • Vent@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        Netflix didn’t start with ads, and the ads don’t affect pre-existing subscription tiers.

        • ares35@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          1 year ago

          … other than the fact that they cost more to ‘make room for’ the ad-supported service at and near the former price points.

          • Vent@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            Did some more research and Netflix did remove their “Basic” plan when they added the cheaper ad-supported tier. They also raised the prices of their other plans, but those increases were consistent historically, so I’m not convinced the addition of an ad-supported tier caused them. Graph of Netflix prices from 2011-2023

    • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Uh, no. The system is:

      • The law requires us to disable tracking by default for all users
      • We can’t make hundreds of billions of dollars per year with tracking disabled
      • So - make the service $14/month by default, unless you opt-in.
      • It’s win/win. If users pay $14, they make huge profits. If users opt in to tracking, they make huge profits.
      • ares35@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        they don’t ‘win’ if europeans tell zuk to take a hike in sufficient numbers. decline the tracking for ‘free’ use and declining the paid option.

          • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            The question is how it affects their numbers. When a company like Facebook misses growth (or, god forbid, actually shrinks) the market punishes them for it.

            That said, Zuck is not Elon. I’m more confident FB has a plan and isn’t just shooting from the hip. They likely have a model for some shrinkage and decided on $14 because X% of users are expected to accept targeting, Y% will abandon the platform (or decrease engagement), and Z% will pay. I bet they picked a number that would make Z small but not non-existent.

      • ares35@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        we’ve been using prime video quite a bit here with our latest ‘trial’. the ux has degraded a lot since the last one we had. they’re pushing the paid shit (third-party subs, rentals, ‘purchases’) way too much on the ‘related’ and other lists and links. it’s gotten so bad, you need to use a third-party site just to find the ‘free with prime’ content, because amazon sure af ain’t gonna list it so you can find it easily.

    • Heresy_generator@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago
      • Next step might be to add some ads to paid version?

      Yup. Add “a few” “unobtrusive” ads “relevant to your interests” to the $14 dollar tier while offering a new $18 ad-free tier.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      I stopped using Facebook years and years ago when adblockers failed to stop FB ads. I have yet to find one that actually works.

      When I took a look to see if it had improved, the feed wasn’t even chronological. I get posts from days ago on top and posts from hours ago buried pages in. The posts at the top of the feed are even ones I’ve seen before. FB has become entirely useless and only bother for the few groups that insist on using it.

      • ares35@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        traditional rules-based blockers like ublock origin fail because facebook randomizes tags and code on their pages specifically to prevent them from working well, or even at all.

        fbpurity.com is designed for facebook.

      • Chris@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Ads don’t particularly bother me but they do get tiresome when every other post is an ad. I don’t use FB though. YouTube ads are getting increasingly irritating - it seems that every two minutes during a video there will be an ad break, but I refuse to pay for a subscription for the small amount I use YouTube. I think there are some alternative interfaces which stop the ads but I keep forgetting to use/try them.

        • ililiililiililiilili@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Try YouTube Revanced (requires modding APK) or LibreTube (available on F-Droid) if you’re on Android. Go with SmartTube on Android TV. Just use Firefox + uBlock Origin if watching YouTube on a computer.