Social media was free to use without any cost is now over
We have been giving away our data for free to use social media platforms, and in return, advertisers have been able to target us with accuracy.
This has made the top brass of these companies very wealthy, but in recent years, user growth has been stagnating, people are becoming aware of the harm these platforms can cause, and distrust in them is high.
As a result, the conditions that made the ad-model effective are falling apart.
Eating an apple every day will help you save money on advertising
The most significant problem the model is facing is a decrease in ad spending by brands due to the current economic conditions, erratic leadership on certain platforms, and Apple’s changes to app tracking.
This has caused a decrease in revenue for Meta of around $12 billion in 2022. People are not willing to give away their personal data, so only 25% of people with iPhones are opting in.
This decrease in ad spending is causing shareholders to become worried, and companies are beginning to look for short-term solutions to long-term problems, which could cause users to suffer.
Confirmed feelings of hopelessness
Twitter and Meta recently started charging users a monthly fee for certain features, such as account verification, editing tweets, and higher-quality video uploads.
These features should be free, but the platforms are trying to make up for the decrease in ad revenue by hiding them behind a paywall. This is unlikely to be successful, as it is impossible to make the same amount of money from subscriptions as from advertising.
As a result, social media platforms are looking for other ways to make money, such as Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to create a virtual world. This is the end of the ad-driven era of social media, and it is about time.