Serving the masses for free and making money out of it requires a high level of intellectual sophistication that the standard citizen does not always get. Multiple reasons for that such as education, readiness to listen, accepting a short-term drawback versus a more elusive longer-term benefit. But neither Mark Zuckerberg nor Larry Page and Serguei Brin are humanity’s benefactors, they are highly talented businessmen. They are amongst the richest US business leaders and are not operating for the good of humanity nor the citizens.
What, beyond the various scandals, will stop F and G from continuing to be the most powerful advertising agencies in the world? Two factors may.
There were interesting talks recently when the worldwide marketing director of Procter & Gamble (their largest client) complained publicly that a lot of the money was wasted on leads which were not properly qualified.
What are the implications behind this? If they satisfy their client (read more revenue for F. and G.) it will require a much deeper and more analytical access to your thoughts, be they commercial, private or emotional. Big Brother has not quite finished with you.
Very large advertisers may be tempted to go their own way (P&G could be one but Accor in Hotels is trying too…) but the portfolio would lack breadth and choice to appeal to the end-user.
Will the end-users move to another network? It could be extremely complicated and the switch would involve an enormous task to be able to offer equivalent levels of service. And how would that be funded? Advertising again? So what would be different?
Is the consumer ready to pay a monthly fee…the answer today is NO
This article was written on 03 Jul 2018, and is filled under Point of View.
Accor, Amazon, Apple, facebook, GAFA, Google, microsoft, P&G