How is that revenue different than the ad revenue TV networks make with the wall of toy commercials during morning cartoons?
Historically, in the US, there have been strict limits on what ads are allowed around children's TV. There has to be a distinction between the TV show and the ads. For example kids TV shows in the US used to (not sure about now) have a very distinct break saying that the show was going to be back soon, indicating that what followed wasn't part of the show.
There is also a difference in that 20 years ago, if a kid wanted to buy a toy, they had to see an ad on TV that happened to be for a toy they wanted and then convince their parent to go to the store and buy that toy.
Now with targeted ads and IAP, kids are being targeted directly to buy shiny goods for games that they play. Cosmetic upgrades in the more "honest" games that bestow social status between peers, or gacha tokens in pay to win games to get needed items/characters to progress. (And some games combine the worst of both!)
Targeting a child with an ad for a game they play gets insidious very quickly. "Hey Timmy, did you know all your friends are laughing behind your back because you don't have the latest and greatest armor upgrade? Better buy it now!"
Chime Chime Level up! Good job!
Makes In-app-purchase
Chime Chime Purchase completed
Though gacha mechanics have managed to combine the worst of both worlds. :(
Social media ads are essentially interactive, but their mechanics are hidden and there's no winning state for the player.
And just to play with dark ideas: what exactly (besides technological limitations) would stop any of the big companies from basically running a long social experiment to determine whether, over years, you can shape a kid to become an adult that's a big consumer?
An ad on TV has no information on who you are when you view it. An ad on SM has detailed information of who you were years ago, who you are now, and there's no reason why it can't make predictions about who you'll be based on the growing data. Nor is there a reason not to try to shape that to their benefit.
Yeah, no. Facebook ads are mostly pay per impression, not click, so there’s no reason to even do this. Ad targeting is controlled by advertisers for the most part, not algorithms - they want to target specific demographics, not some random cross-section of humanity. It’s very different from the kind of algorithms that power your news feed.
The final goal is obviously a sale, but the real commodity is attention.
I'm not saying "this is how it is", I'm saying "show my a reason why this is not the case now or where we're heading.
Like, if FB could do this, and it yielded more money for them, what would stop them? You sound very convinced, so I'd be glad if you can go into detail as to what that conviction is founded on. Have you worked on these algorithms?
I agree, though the youngest millennials were already 11 when Netflix launched its streaming service. And that was just movies.