this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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A useful question to ask when hearing about a new company is "What's your business model?"
There is no such thing as a free and benevolent product with an advertising budget.
Free and benevolent maybe not. but genuine and non malicious?
"What's your business model?" "we make and sell delicious sandwiches. Customer buys the sandwich for a little mote than it costs to make so we get money for ourselves." That isn't a scam.
Correct. It's not a scam. Because it's not free. The sandwich had a price posted, you paid it, you received the product. Valid business model.
What would you think instead if you saw a NYT front page ad taken out for Free Sandwich Mart, the all-you-can-eat totally free sandwich emporium?
Or in this case, a free browser extension that paid to sponsor five thousand YouTube videos that promises to help you pay less money to every store you activate it on at no cost to you?
Yes. Which is why, when you see a novel service being advertised, it is a useful exercise to ask of them "What is your business model?"
Wikipedia
Show me a Wikipedia ad that they paid money for?
They have a budget spent on advertising on wikipedia itself, plus the cost of the emails they send out asking for donations.
Does it even count if you're advertising on your own platform? If I'm able to see the "ads" in the first place, I'm already using it.
I also wouldn't exactly call a donation drive "advertising" either. They're not trying to onboard more users to the service, they're nagging people who already use the service to give them money. Which is itself leaning a bit on the wall of what is and isn't "free".
YES
Their advertisement budget is collected by guilt tripping Wikipedia users using the lie that the website would cease if they didnβt βdonateβ.
Yes, their method of advertising/fundraising is atrocious. They still have an advertising budget and their product is benevolent and free.
I agree
Real as shit. I know idiots who think apple pays people scaling on how many downloads their app has xD (kinda like yt views)
"Where are they getting money to pay for sponsorships and what are their motivations"