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Meta to introduce Ads on Threads in 2025 in move surprising no one. (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 month ago by higgsboson@dubvee.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 137 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

"Since our priority is to build consumer value first and foremost, there are no ads or monetization features currently on Threads," a Meta spokesperson said in an emailed response.

The spokesperson then continued, "But only until early 2025. Then we'll be throwing consumer value in the trash and lighting it on fire. It will be very exciting."

[-] EvilBit@lemmy.world 74 points 1 month ago

They’re not even hiding the enshittification strategy. They’re practically teaching you the principles up front.

“First we trap you, then we exploit you. Duh.”

[-] HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth 34 points 1 month ago

Is it enshittification if it's shit from the start?

[-] EvilBit@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

I guess you can always make it shittier?

I never understood the appeal of Threads anyway. Like, who leaves Xitter because it’s toxic garbage and goes to something owned by Meta, who practically invented this particular flavor of toxic garbage?

[-] HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth 11 points 1 month ago

Sometimes you just grow tired of getting shot in the knee and want to be punch in the face instead

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[-] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Consumer value as in number of valuable consumers we can grift later

[-] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

You deserve a raise. Someone get this deadwalker a corner office!

[-] wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

Step 2 of the enshittification.

[-] SoupBrick@yiffit.net 79 points 1 month ago

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 month ago

[-] jadelord@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 month ago

Dear Pikachu, of course you are surprised. Learn how to expect and evade Team Rocket first.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago

How could those two suspiciously familiar faces with light violet and wine colored hairs possibly be Jessie and James from Team Rocket???

[-] Cordinel 53 points 1 month ago

TIL Threads didn't have ads

[-] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 50 points 1 month ago

I’m more surprised to discover now that it launched without ads

[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 5 points 1 month ago

So did Facebook. It's the old drug dealer gambit: first hit is on the house, after that, you gotta pay.

[-] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 43 points 1 month ago

Still no reason to defederate, huh?

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 40 points 1 month ago

Still no reason to defederate, huh?

No, it's not. Ads can't federate. Threads has no control over my Mastodon feed and Lemmy can't interact with Threads at all. Following Threads accounts from Mastodon is effectively an ad blocker.

[-] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 33 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Might be a stupid question, but can't threads just post ads as "posts" via activityPub? On mastodon they would appear as toots?

Was just remembering how reddit introduced ads as basically promoted posts and recall facebook doing the same.

I sure fucking hope not.

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

Might be a stupid question, but can’t threads just post ads as “posts” via activityPub? On mastodon they would appear as toots?

Ads in Instagram are posts in the timeline from accounts you haven't followed. Ads don't show when you visit a profile and browse its images. So for example a post by Coca-Cola might appear in the main feed even though I never followed it but it has a little "sponsored" marker in a corner to indicate that it's there because Coke paid for it and the ad placement algorithm thinks that I might be interested in that product. As Threads is a spin-off from Instagram, ads there will surely follow the very same model. Sure, you might be able to follow Coca-Cola's Threads account from Mastodon and see the post promoting their drink that way but Threads just cannot place targeted ads on Mastodon because they don't control that feed.

[-] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense for targeted ads for sure. Still a bit worried about hashtags being used for ads since I follow a lot of hashtags on mastodon and usually have a quite a nice "organic" feed compared to other social media.

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Still a bit worried about hashtags being used for ads

Coca-Cola could have an official profile on mastodon.social and use hashtags there as well. Whether corporations use hashtags or not in their "regular" Mastodon posts has nothing to do with Threads.

Also Mastodon has user-level features to restrict unwanted content to show up in your feed ranging from hiding boosts up to blocking the entire instance:

And since Lemmy cannot interact with Threads content at all, defederating Lemmy instances from Threads makes even less sense. One of the big Lemmy instances blocks Threads but doesn't block CSAM instances. Insane priorities their admins have.

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[-] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 month ago

How do you know that Threads won't inject ads as posts?

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

How do you know that Threads won’t inject ads as posts?

Ads in Instagram are posts from accounts you don't follow. Threads can't make you follow promotion accounts you don't want to follow.

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[-] net00@lemm.ee 12 points 1 month ago

Ads can't federate

Never underestimate facebooks capacity to enshittify. If they want to send ads as posts they will make a way. In principle the fediverse should oppose for-profit-line-go-up fuckheads, it's always the same bullshit.

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[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 month ago

I'm changing my vote in the Agora from "yes defederate" to "Hell fucking yes defederate.'

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 29 points 1 month ago

There aren't any ads on Mastodon. :)

[-] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 month ago

The only surprising thing is that it took this long.

[-] DesolateMood@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

I haven't used threads, I just assumed it already had ads

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[-] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 month ago

Pretty much the exact same thought I had upon seeing the title.

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[-] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

There must be an enshitification chart where time is on one axis and DAU is on another, where it's considered the perfect time to enshitifiy due to peak username or some shit

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[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 23 points 1 month ago

i don't even threads yall, but I still am not surprised

[-] Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 month ago

I'm just waiting for Bluesky to introduce ads.

[-] glowinfly@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

Maybe in the future, but for now it looks like they already amnounced their next step to how they'll monetize their platform.

Bluesky has revealed how it plans to start making money without necessarily having to rely on ads. The platform will remain free to use for everyone, though it’s working on a premium subscription that will provide access to profile customization tools (remember when Myspace offered that for free?) and higher quality video uploads.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/social-media/blueskys-upcoming-premium-plan-wont-give-paid-users-special-treatment-193800247.html

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[-] Eczpurt@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

Did threads take off recently or what's the story? I thought it was unsuccessful as xitter was already the preferred platform

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 month ago

I thought it was unsuccessful as xitter was already the preferred platform

It isn't anymore, ad I expect that to accelerate. The Guardian just announced today that they will no longer use it, for example (although individual journalists may still choose to do so)

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 month ago

Meta auto created threads accounts for all instagram users iirc so they kinda forced thwir way into the market by pre inflating their numbers.

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[-] ansiz@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago

More short sighted corporate greed. It's a great period to try and pull in Twitter users but instead let's add ads for a short term bump in profits.

[-] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 4 points 1 month ago

Why is it shortsighted? A service like this costs money to run, and if you won't pay for it, someone else has to.

[-] eskimofry@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Maybe lets not try to pretend that it is just about the costs shall we? I bet MBAs will cower at the suggestion to put up a paywall from the beginning. Afterall, bait-and-switch is their bread-and-butter.

Subscriptions weren't the norm when we actually paid for something and got the full product. The cost to run things didn't suddenly become a factor just now.

Only thing that changed: greed of businesses, execs, shareholders.

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[-] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I wish more federated services had built in (optional) support for enabling ads so I didn't have to constantly worry about them shutting down. Especially peer tube.

[-] Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee 14 points 1 month ago

I kinda wish more federated services also had built in, optional support for directly paying the people hosting the service and infrastructure.

[-] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

yeah that is why i chose not to donate to the instance is that my home any longer.

when they decided to keep federated with threads they decided that they didn't need my donations.

[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 month ago

You know that blocking threads account-wide on Mastodon 2 clicks and a confirmation?

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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024

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