
Free Is Too High a Price for Facebook and Google - dsr12
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-free-is-too-high-a-price-for-facebook-and-google-11559966411
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dalbasal
One key point about the free and/or zero marginal cost "products" that I think
economists haven't yet dealt with is: massive imbalances between revenue
generated by a product and the cost of producing it.

Facebook is the cleanest example. Compare to BMW. If we cut BMW's annual
budget by 50%, we'd get about 50% fewer cars. If we do the same to FB, we'd
get approximately the same FB.

FB's revenue happens to be about $65bn per annum. But, the cost of making
Facebook available to all its users is basically arbitrary. If Facebook had
happened to produce just $6.5bn, I expect that the value/features users get
would have been about the same.

A lot of the investment (eg uber) in such products goes towards pure (kinda
zero-sum) competition. IE, a big chunk of the investment in Uber wasn't needed
(or beneficial) for consumers to get the benefit of Uber. It was just needed
to ensure Uber captured market share.

This has potentially worrying implications for economic efficiency.

~~~
dillonmckay
This has been the case since at least the 1990s, maybe earlier.

That strategy has always emphasized market-share over profitability.

It seems to work out better for software than physical produced goods.

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wayoutthere
What is the cost of privacy? How much would you pay to have total control of
your data? Because that’s the price of Facebook / Google.

At least with Google, you can get some modicum if privacy and improved
security by paying for G-Suite on a private domain (you have _way_ more
control of your data policy that way). But it doesn’t change the fact that
>90% of their revenue and nearly all their profit comes from advertising.

Facebook is pure cancer, and should die in a fire.

~~~
throwaway7363
You get privacy with Google ? Root your phone and check how often your Android
phones home 1e100.net . Even the stupidest of things like opening the phone
settings will make Android to call up big brother. I can only imagine what
they do when you login to the phone.

~~~
StavrosK
I wonder if ROMs like LineageOS remove this telemetry.

~~~
oil25
The telemetry mostly comes from Google Play Services, which are optional on
LineageOS. I've been using my phone without it and side-loading open source
programs - no issues so far and no telemetry collected as far as I can see.

~~~
StavrosK
Ah, in that case I wonder if MicroG has the same sort of telemetry, as that's
what I've installed in my LOS ROM...

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dsr12
Link without paywall: [https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-free-is-too-high-a-
price-fo...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-free-is-too-high-a-price-for-
facebook-and-google-11559966411?mod=rsswn)

~~~
eisa01
Blendle link if you want to pay 49 cents: [https://blendle.com/i/the-wall-
street-journal/when-free-is-t...](https://blendle.com/i/the-wall-street-
journal/when-free-is-too-high-a-price/bnl-wallstreetjournal840-20190608-17_2)

~~~
Nextgrid
Thanks for this, been looking to sign up to Blendle for ages!

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your-nanny
what stops a company that charges for it's services from also making even more
money by selling your data and showing you ads?

even traditional magazines and newspapers had ads.

~~~
dragonwriter
Traditional magazines and newspapers were generally primarily ad-supported;
paid circulation was important as a signal that the as ads were getting
viewed, drive there was no way to measure impressions delivered to actual
readers directly; there's less reason for an ad-funded online service to
charge users directly, since they don't need the indirect proxy measure of
reach.

~~~
your-nanny
yeah, but "less reason to" is not "more reason not to"

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mastrsushi
Does anyone know how to read this article for free? Ironically relative.

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jessaustin
_What dollar value do you assign to misinformation that undermined the
national discourse around the 2016 U.S. election..._

It has been priceless for "both" the "major" parties, that such a baseless
falsehood as RussiaRussiaRussia has allowed them to avoid any scrutiny of how
their chosen candidates could have been beaten by a reality-TV buffoon. After
enough arm-twisting, FB finally allowed that, sure, whatever, Russia bought a
couple thousand dollars worth of ads. Thanks Facebook!

~~~
dd36
Baseless falsehood? I take it you haven’t read the Mueller Report or seen the
indictments of Russian Nationals. Willful ignorance or intentional
misinformation?

~~~
Consultant32452
Some people commit crimes and go to jail, including Russian nationals who
interfere with our elections. But let's be clear, a few thousand dollars of
Facebook ads that read like they were created by high schoolers is not why a
clown was elected. That's the lie, not that foreign actors tried to influence
our election. Foreign actors trying to influence elections is the standard
operating procedure for all the big players in the world.

~~~
thrower123
The danger is that if people keep inflating this imaginary foreign bugaboo as
the root cause for their perceived catastrophe, they will ignore the real
reasons they lost the next time. Perhaps the second time around can break
through their cognitive dissonance, but I fear it will just break sanity.

~~~
Consultant32452
I'm confident he'll win again and worry there'll be riots in major cities. The
front runner for the Democrats, Biden, doesn't even seem to be really
campaigning. I think their strategy is "The less people see Biden the more
they like him" so he has carefully been timid enough to stay out of the news.
And Biden is definitely a back to former status quo candidate.

~~~
your-nanny
And I'm worried that if he loses, he won't accept the results of the election,
and that many of his most rabid fans will follow him into the abyss. I'm
worried that his jokes about staying President betray his actual desires, and
that his lack of knowledge and respect for the Constitution and rule of law,
or of norms of decency, alongside his narcissism and lack of inhibition, will
cause him to do just that. I'm worried that this country has become two
countries, and that Republicans would rather stick it to the libs than follow
their own oft stated principle s. I worry that the talking heads self interest
in stoking controversey and outrage puts ratings before truth, god, and
country. I worry that no one wants to find the truth anymore,band that some
believe that there is no truth, only power. I worry that each side no longer
sees the other as friends, neighbours, allies, or even as Americans, perhaps
not even fully human.

~~~
Consultant32452
People have said the same thing about at least the two most recent previous
presidents. There's zero chance of him not stepping down. Even if Trump were
the type of person to try that, which he's not, in order for the type of coup
you're talking about to work you have to have support of the military. Any
attempt to do this would last all of about ten seconds.

~~~
your-nanny
I am aware that it is an American tradition to worry about Presidents defying
their term limits, declaring national emergencies to seize power, and all that
jazz. It's a tradition I approve of, especially given the increasing power of
the executive branch, and Congress's weak-kneed approach to reigning that in.

That said, Trump's "jokes" about such things are not ordinary and are deeply
inappropriate. Also his attempts to get the military and the police to show
personal loyalty to him is also unusual, and deeply inappropriate. Even if, as
you say, he couldn't pull it off even if he tried, that doesn't mean it is not
setting bad precedent. Norms are much harder to build up than to tear down,
and the rule of law as we know it cannot survive without them.

~~~
Consultant32452
All major indications are that he was prepared to lose and concede the 2016
election. He didn't appear to have written an acceptance speech. He didn't
have a cabinet picked out. He is rumored to have had a deal in the works to
start his own cable channel, Trump TV. You don't do that stuff if you're
planning on committing a coup to overthrow the country after losing an
election. I remember the first six months. He was not behaving like a person
who seriously thought he'd be running the country, legitimately or otherwise.
There is no reasonable concern here. He's a reality TV personality and says a
lot of stupid shit. I don't like him a president, but these hair on fire fears
and conspiracy theories are baseless.

~~~
your-nanny
I'm not talking about 2016, and never have been talking about 2016. but it's
pretty clear you are not actually responding to anything I've actually said,
so no point in continuuing the conversation. probably no point to begin with,
since when it comes to politics people's heads don't stay on straight.

but presidents saying "stupid shit" is not something I take lightly

~~~
Consultant32452
I understand you're not talking about 2016. But the Trump that was totally
ready to concede and not ever even become the President in 2016 is the same
Trump running in 2020.

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johnmarcus
The irony that it's behind a pay wall and I immediately lose interest. I
wonder if the WSJ talks about that?

~~~
scarface74
What irony? Either you accept ad supported content or you pay for it.

~~~
majkinetor
Problem: why people share links to payed content ?

In my world, payed content = no sharing. It would be great if sites like this
would just prevent that. I don't have a problem with payed stuff. I have a
problem when people hijack my time by providing a link that turns out to be
pay walled, whats the point of that ? No... I am not going to bounce register,
does it anybody ?

