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> but nothing in micropayments

That's not true. Web Monetization is built on top of the Interledger and does precisely that - micropayments for web content. When i wrote about it[0] and posted on HN[1] the overwhelming response here was negative, presupposing greed and lack of privacy of everyone ( as in the website would still track and run ads to earn more money, etc.). The solutions exist, people just don't want them, even supposedly privacy-focused people.

[0] https://atodorov.me/2021/03/07/please-support-web-monetizati...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26375857



> overwhelming response here was negative, presupposing greed and lack of privacy of everyone

Because the history of other platforms which have done this, shows that ads didn't go away.

Cable TV, full of ads.

Satellite Radio, not too bad but still has ads.


> Because the history of other platforms which have done this, shows that ads didn't go away.

This is classic negativity bias, I can think of plenty of platforms that transitioned to paid models without ads


But then again Netflix et al, zero ads

Spotify premium, zero ads

I think it's just a question of coming up with the right model. Assuming that failed examples are the rule isn't all that useful


Netflix doesn't have ads, yet. Spotify Premium doesn't have ads, yet.

Hulu didn't use to have ads on its most premium tier, and from what I know, you now get ads on that too. Corporations generally don't like leaving money on the table. If you can pay, you are even better target for ads.


Hulu, in my country at least, is ad-free on premium. It's not a hard thing to investigate rather than speculate[1]

[1]https://help.hulu.com/s/article/how-much-does-hulu-cost


> Netflix doesn't have ads, yet. Spotify Premium doesn't have ads, yet.

Both of those are replacement products for models of consumption that were previously pretty much entirely ad based.


For now, Netflix and Spotify have no ads. I have a feeling that if these companies feel the pinch during a bad quarter or two, they will 100% start introducing ads. That's how business works, they want to maximize revenue. TV publishers have traditionally charged a fee on top of the ads. That demonstrates that audiences are fine with it. 100% Netflix and Spotify will eventually have ads.


> TV publishers have traditionally charged a fee on top of the ads.

While not wanting to get into a debate about what is and isn't an ad in the context of US public broadcasting, this claim is not true of public broadcasting worldwide.


> TV publishers have traditionally charged a fee on top of the ads. That demonstrates that audiences are fine with it. 100% Netflix and Spotify will eventually have ads.

Or maybe the huge success of Netflix and to a lesser extent Spotify is in no small part because they don't have ads and they know it?


Some Netflix originals have a lot of product placement


Product placement is a slight annoyance compared to ads. That said, I could see them becoming just as toxic.


I find product placement to be horrific. It was the final straw that got me to just stop watching TV/Netflix/etc altogether.




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