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Comment by nceqs3 | Hacker News Reader

Without targeted ads, everything will be behind a paywall.

Searching for a niche topic on an internet without advertising: 10 results of pages run by hobbyists, who care so much about their topic of interest that they are willing to pay out of their own pocket to make information available to others

Searching for a niche topic on an internet with advertising: 1000000 results of SEO spam, senseless AI generated articles, 10 minute ad-filled youtube videos, posted by people who have no intent to actually provide high quality information but just see internet users as hoards of mindless meat to show advertisements to

Which kind of internet would you rather have?

Searching is the key word there. Without ads, Google would be behind a paywall. Without ads, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. would also be behind paywalls.

>Without ads, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, etc. would also be behind paywalls.

And nothing of value would be lost.

It sucks that the middle ground has basically been abandoned. Simple sponsor slots on niche websites that are focused on specific topics. You have a blog about bicycles with an audience? Seems the perfect space for a bicycle related company to advertise on. Work out a deal for a rate and there you go. The brand can figure out if it’s worth it based on referrals or other metrics.

I get it, it involves a lot of manual labor and it messy and it’s easier to just slap some js code and forget about it.

Being without targeted ads doesn't mean you can't do ads.

There was a time, not all that long ago, that targeted ads were simply impossible to do. And yet, ad-supported media existed nonetheless.

And there was a time when the vast majority of what you saw on the web wasn't ad-supported or behind a paywall. So clearly that model also works.

Some form of targeted ads have existed since at least the 1950s (if not the 1920s). Nielsen tracked sample demographics of the US population to see what kind of people watched what TV channels and shows at which times. When people refer to "Nielsen ratings", this is data provided by Nielsen to the publishers (show-runners) about how many people watched their shows, and what kind of people they were. Nielsen is still the largest advertising data provider to traditional TV

I disagree.

You could run non targeted adds by sponsoring sites that are close to your business.

You could have a mix of premium and free content.

You could figure out other ways to connect with potential customers.

Targeted ads are not the be all and end all of web monetisation.

I remember the Web of the 1990s and early 2000s where there were plenty of sites operated by hobbyists and academics that had no ads at all. Of course, there were also e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon that didn't have ads since their business models didn't rely on them.

The Web would look different without targeted ads, but not everything will be behind a paywall.

Yes, the internet would probably be nothing but tech people. YouTube would certainly not exist

Advertising and paywalls aren't the only available business models. One would think that with all the modern technology we would have alternative sustainable business models on the web.

Turns out, we do. Brave's BAT is a great model, regardless of what you think of Brave Inc.

The internet was full of useful information before the existence of advertising or paywalls.

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