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Anon finds a bot (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 61 points 10 months ago (12 children)

The site makes most of its money selling ads. The value of that ad space is based on user metrics.

Many users are now fake. They are actively hiding this fact.

Apropos of nothing, the company has a $34 billion market cap.

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  • [–] 25 points 10 months ago (11 children)

    Why is anyone paying for adverts that no one will see though? Surely adverts only have value if it brings in sales.

    Would be amusing to see the entire advertising market crash tbh.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    You think that in 2025 companies with large media budgets are buying digital ads and just saying "well fuck it maybe we'll make money on it"?

    They track EVERYTHING. From the impression to the click tot he purchase, and there are trackers and attribution platforms by the hundreds out there to help them understand what the ROI they're receiving on those ads are.

    Companies are buying ads because people are buying products.

    Even if the site is 90% bots there are enough real people using the site to make buying ads profitable.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I suspect part of the reason for bots is to keep people on the platform. But if people start to realise which is probably going to become more likely as the number of bots rises and quality drops, then real people would start to leave or lose interest.

    Could be short term engagement at the risk of long term platform health?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago

    I'd imagine that's exactly what's happening.

    Whether it plays out with people leaving remains to be seen. It's become such a busted out shell of its former self, I can't stand it anymore, but plenty of people almost certainly feel differently.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    It's extremely difficult to measure the effectiveness of online ads and most companies have an incentive to inflate their numbers since they're sold as a certain number of views/impressions.

    Advertising is a scam for both those who buy it and the intended audience.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    At the end of the day views/impressions don't matter, people actually buying the thing is what matters. If no one is buying you can have a billion views and impressions but it wouldn't even be worth £5. So then advertising companies would struggle to find buyers if buyers quickly see it isn't worth it.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago

    The point being made is that the big corps advertising have an exceedingly hard time measuring whether ad buys resulted in sales, and especially which ad buys resulted in sales.

    Buyers don't see that it isn't worth it, they can only guess.

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