Ads & Twitter (and Disqus) - reposting some comments

I recently commented on one of my favourite VC blogs - Both Sides Of The Table

As an aside, this is the first time I’ve done this.  I am usually a lurker.  But I like Disqus - the idea that if I comment it’s not lost in the ether, it’s easy for me to keep track of.  Now my comments are a conversation, and part of my constant process of learning.


I responded to the comments of someone who just seemed to want to argue with Mark Suster, whose blog it is, and insisted no-one wants ads in tweets.  No-one wants ads anywhere and having them pushed at him was unacceptable.

I think the push question you raise - why the acceptance of push - is more about the fact that certain types of information have a value that rapidly decreases with time… so it’s natural that access to that information migrates to a feeds/streams type architecture, where you can mine back for old data if you want to, but more likely you’ll just want whatever is recent. i.e. where relevance is a function of time.

Push is possibly an unfortunate term as it’s misleading and potentially aggressive sounding. We all learn pushers are bad, right?

Now if you start thinking about the move towards accessing content via devices with more limited interfaces - think mobile - you need filtering mechanisms for relevance, and a feed/stream with it’s time-based filtering is natural, no?

I’d place a bet (read: I am placing a bet) that over the next few years more and more Internet interaction will be via mobile applications based on feed/stream architectures. In that context “push” is the right way (or one right way) to do things - the push adds value.

If some of what is pushed is well-targeted commercial messaging that helps direct me to things to buy/interact with - ads - I don’t think that has to be an obtrusive thing. Indeed the market will find the right level for ads. TV stations found that whatever it is - 7 minutes per hour - was about the limit before audience drop off counteracted additional ad dollars. Ad.ly and the like will go on a similar voyage of discovery and find the right level.

This did little to satisfy the individual, and more argument ensued.  The point I wanted to finish with was simple though:

i think you’re arguing apples and oranges. it doesn’t matter what users say they will use, it matters what commercial reality can be created to fund the creation and delivery of the content they usethe only question that matters is what the market delivers through A/B testing, which is what TV effectively did over decades, and then as technologies change new models need to be found what you WANT, and whether you WANT to get ads in something is only relevant insofar as you act on that and you make up some portion of the market, which in the aggregate will make the decision your response seems not to understand that

I think I am going to unpack these thoughts in coming weeks, on this blog.  Perhaps eventually putting together a white paper, as with AppWhirl we’re placing a big bet on a set of trends in consumption of media and accessing audiences (selling attention) that are powerful, inevitable and earthshaking.