Member-only story
No Utopia Built On Advertising
Sidewalk Labs Takes A Hike
The model of ad-supported can only scale in certain verticals. Maybe it makes sense in search and for videos. In those realms, there is value creation in many ways:
- A person is looking for a service
- A business is looking for clients
- A third party can offer to connect the two
Everyone wins. In media consumption, it starts to get tangential. There ends up being another party. As a content creator, I want people to view my work. There’s the content creator, the advertiser, the platform, and the consumer. The consumer isn’t necessarily looking for the advertiser’s service. The advertiser needs to interrupt the consumer.
With other services supported at a further distance from the advertiser, there needs to be more data extracted. If a corporation that makes their money off of advertising is excited to build for you the city of the future for you, it’s not going to be a utopia. It’s going to be Westworld.
Covid was good cover for Sidewalk Labs to depart.
Strong communities take a long time to foster and are built by passionate constituents who can overcome extreme inertia. They are rarely borne from outside interests.
