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Ask HN: Is the ad monetization model dead?

4 points by phendrenad2 ↗ HN
Between GDPR, CCPA, YouTube dramatically cutting revenue share payouts to content creators a few years ago, ongoing accusations that Google is inflating ad views, Facebook's Cambridge Analytica fiasco, and now Musk is talking about making Twitter subscription-only. Is the ad economy dead? Is the world ready for the normalization of subscription-based websites?

5 comments

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smoldesu
You're asking this on a website that still runs Y-Combinator advertisements, so I'm going to mark it down as a "no".

On a more serious note, I don't think the ad monetization model will ever die. It's the simple principle of supply and demand; as long as there is a demand for a free experience, it will be profitable to provide an ad-supported version. It's why YouTube cranks out billions in ad revenue every year, even if they have a slightly insidious monetization model. This is what the free market settled on, and it's competitive enough to push both ad-based and subscription-based monetization to compete harder.

brucethemoose2
Ads rule the world.

But things seem to be shifting towards "influencer ads" at the moment. And I think there is some merit to the web ad inflation accusations.

vb-8448
Speaking about Youtube, AFAIK most of the content creators make far more money from influencer marking rather than youtube itself.

The "subscription-based websites" model is for sure a thing in a lot of areas (eg. Kagi search engine) but it's only for niches, most of the people want and will be on "free" websites.

spaceman42
Ad economy is not dead yet.Major portion of the internet is still run by ads. Youtube shows more ads than ever before. They are trying their best to fight ad blockers. Almost all youtubers have sponsor ads on their videos. Facebook and instagram still run on ads. They dont have a subscription model. I dont know whats happening with twitter.I am guessing that they are unable to attract customers.