In response to a recent post by Stephanie concerning findings on mobile carriers stifling certain apps and content, I am posting an article I recently read concerning Facebook and Google’s dominance on Ads. More often than not one will be searching something on googling and on Facebook an advertisement referring to the searched item will be present. The ability for Google and Facebook to do this is purely genius on their part and it connects back to the discussion we had on the ability for companies to increase their revenue by using their own users for feedback on what they want to watch/see and in this case assisting other companies to capitalize on that with ad space on these websites. Last year alone Google garnered (including YouTube) garnered $35.00 billion in total digital ad dollars in the US, up 18.9% over 2016!
AND if you are really paranoid about Facebook’s ability to look at your previous searches and reflect that in advertisements on their site ( EVEN THOUGH THEY ALLEGEDLY DENY DOING THIS) , the below article gives you a step by step guide on how to eliminate their ability to do this – logging out is not enough and there is no way to complete eliminate it but there are steps you can take to protect yourself.
https://lifehacker.com/5843969/facebook-is-tracking-your-every-move-on-the-web-heres-how-to-stop-it
Other articles:
Check out this article for more stats: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Google-Facebook-Tighten-Grip-on-US-Digital-Ad-Market/1016494
This article… https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/04/cowen-facebook-vs-google-digital-ad-business.html also addresses Google’s leadership in digital Ads but it was stated last month that Facebook is expected to increase its share thanks to the growth of Instagram and video ads.
Thank you Rasmeet, Stephanie, Charlotte and others for contributing to this interesting dialogue on social media. This post really brings into focus the economics of social media. Here is a growing, multi-billion dollar industry, dominated by a duopoly which relies heavily on users to drive revenue:
– Users are the subject of ads: https://gizmodo.com/googles-going-to-start-sticking-your-face-and-name-in-1443861985/1462317340
– As we previously discussed, ads being placed all over facebook pages, which drove sales, led to the overhauling of facebook’s algorithms to reduce the impact of fake news and aggressive marketers: https://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2018/01/12/facebook-takes-leap-with-newsfeed-changes-as-shares-tumble.html
So given that users are in the ads at times, “endorse” them via liking, and host the content on their pages, should users be getting a fair slice of the social media revenue bonanza? Is it fair that users, who drive financial growth in the sector, are not given a proportionate monetary benefit?
This article from a few years ago begins to quantify the value that users bring to the social media platforms that they supposedly don’t pay for: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/25/facebook-money-advertising-revenue-should-you-be-paid
The figures are substantial and interesting. As future lawyers, can we draft end user license agreements that acknowledge and reward the contribution of various types of users?