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Comment by jeffasinger | Hacker News Reader

I (sort of) work in the advertising industry. I'm really excited to see this change, but the major players in the industry just weren't ready for it, and it would have been very chaotic with lots of money on the line.

I think waiting until early 2021 is better than having anything that depends on ad revenue see a huge dropoff until the industry figures things out.

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> the major players in the industry just weren't ready for it

That's an excellent reason to do it.

That's a very cavalier attitude given how much of the consumer app ecosystem depends on ad revenue to survive. Having it drop precipitously over a very short span of time could trigger a chain reaction that might ultimately reduce the availability or utility of apps for consumers. It will also disproportionately harm the long tail of app developers.

I detest tracking just as much as anyone else here but I'm skeptical this is the right way to go about dealing with it. A more sensible system would give users the choice between accepting targeted ads or paying a fee for the service.

I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of ad-based apps (without IAP of some kind) make less than $0.50 lifetime revenue on average from 90+% of users. Some quick checking suggests that the median total revenue for most apps is close to $0. Most apps would probably win out if they said "turns out ads don't work, would you be willing to pay $0.99". Even if they lost users, they'd gain revenue.

Whenever an unsustainable free service comes out on HN, and it's something people actually want, there's often a comment saying "this seems unsustainable, so I don't think I can count on it; please let us pay you". The same thing applies to apps.

I doubt lifetime revenue is less than $0.5 in general. I'd like to see statistics. Even if $0.5 is correct, do you think 1/2 of users pay $0.99? Looks like optimistic.

Lots of "mights" and "coulds" there. Evidence please. :)

I'd say that's a good thing. I would further posit that some number above 90% of all apps on the respective app-stores are useless junk and need to be pruned immediately. Ads are a societal ill at this point (just look at what it's done to mobile gaming, or how somehow we have profitable websites seem to need to put ads on anyways e.g. Ebay).

I hope the entire advertising targeting business goes bankrupt, and anything that depends on it goes with it.

Any computer I own (including a phone) is supposed to represent its users interests; It is not supposed to be some compromise between betraying their trust and making money for ad networks.

(Personally, I already have limit tracking enabled. And I use custom DNS filtering, and a bunch of other BS. But my friends and family shouldn't need to do that to have their phone refuse to give information about them)

> I hope the entire advertising targeting business goes bankrupt, and anything that depends on it goes with it.

HN has become a rant fest whenever ad tech gets mentioned.

but this does fit the "minuscule but very vocal minority" trend of our times.

Note that HN does not do ads (except the totally unintrusive job listings) or tracking so it is logical for ad haters to come here :) it's one of the last places left still running on goodwill.

For that it's also one of the few sites I would consider paying a membership for.

Part of me (the emotional part) agrees with you. But without offering a human-nature compatible monetization mechanism to replace ad monetization, I'm sure you'll lose many things that you deeply value without acknowledging or understanding how they depend on that money.

It could probably be argued that "people in general" are willing to pay for services they value and that a few current generations have just been irreparably "mis-trained" to expect free services, but in any free-ish market economy businesses will be incentivized to offer services with costs as hidden from the user and as externalized as possible.

I find it very hard to have sympathy for anyone working in the advertising industry. The same goes anyone that's sold out their users, compromising their privacy by tracking them no matter where they go, and psychologically manipulating them.

Does that mean figures out how to still track people using other means, contrary to their likely stated preference? Because that defeats the purpose.

Disappointed in Apple on this one.

What is the indication that the industry which privacy is against its current interest to be able to come up with a solution which would completely redefine it? I have someone close that works in a massive telco and talking to them I do not think they would think oh lets not sell these data and lose a lot of money becasue there is another feasible solution.

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