Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Monetising Users Is An Ugly Phrase

I was watching CNBC, when the phrase “Monetizing Users” was uttered. I took immediately dislike to it. It came up during a discussion of Facebook, mobile media and advertising. The questioner was wondering how Facebook was going to turn its user base into cash. It was noted that the internet was becoming mobile, smart phones and tablets are being taken up by people at a phenomenal rate. These platforms especially smart phones make advertising difficult due to a smaller screen size and the way they are used. A basic description of online advertizing is one where the host gets paid by the number of unique page loading, targeted ads to specific users or clicks. It is much more complicated than that but the basic nature is getting eyes on ads. This is how formerly “bricks and mortar” media like magazines or newspapers are trying to create profit, though some are trying pay walls or subscriptions. This is also how “free” social media applications pay the freight. Advertizing has been around for over a century. It has infiltrated, (I hate to use that word but it seems so right), every part of our lives. Our attention has been the price we paid for such things as, newspapers and magazines. They filled their pages with ads that we look over while catching up on the latest news or gossip. Radio and TV were “free”; sitting through commercials was the actual cost. It didn’t seem an inconvenience, the advertisers got their audience and we were entertained. It was a fair trade. We could always turn the set off and walk away. Telemarketing made things a little worse tying up our phones and junk mail over flooding our mailboxes. Now we employ “do not call list”. We ban what mail we can. Now it seems different. Social media and mobile internet are not just in our lives but very much part of it them. The young are firmly entrenched in the net. The older generation is fast taking up their place in the web too; the difference is only in degree. Advertising doesn’t feel the same way. It seems intrusive, demanding and at times alive by the way it can target likes, tailoring ads to the specific person. We have become commodities. We have been monetized. Even as the advertiser sells to us we are bundled up and sold by Facebook, Google or any number of mass media outlets. We can’t walk away from the net the way we did the Old Media. So we need to learn to live with it. The situation is not dire. There is no looming danger from some rising internet tyrant. We citizens (not consumers, don’t get me started) encountering a new way of doing things. We have the intelligence to plan the future of the internet commerce and define our relationship to it. We can install proper safe guards and regulations that will Take the all the Ugly out of the phrase “Monetising Users”.

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