Repurposing your content: What was done to US voters to swing an election in favour of a candidate is what is being done by digital platforms and their advertisers at every opportunity – to influence an online user to choose a particular outcome. When your treasure trove of online data gets repurposed to target a large base of users to act in a certain way, it marks a massive breach of trust. “Social media is essentially a virtual representation of people getting together to network in a physical world,” says Satish Mayya, CEO of BPG Maxus. “We are well aware that anything said or done in such a gathering is unlikely to stay private. Why is it that we expect anything different in social media space? We should be wary of the information being put out there and the possibility of misuse.”
Flying the flag for fake news: What is galling is that the very same platforms that spawned data misuse and fake news are now flying the banner of responsibility, and telling users what they ought to be doing on social media, ignoring the fact that the platforms themselves helped put out the vitriol into public realm. These digital platforms want to police which media can be trusted and which cannot be. While companies like Google and Facebook have repeatedly claimed they don’t want to undermine real journalism and would rather support media companies, top media executives say there has been hardly any tangible action on that front.
Playing on audience apathy: Have audiences stopped caring? Who decides what you think - you or your favourite social medium? “I don’t necessarily see a correlation between not trusting something and it’s consumption,” says Reda Raad, CEO of TBWA\Raad Group. “People still consume things they know to be nonsense. You can’t just blindly assume that consumers’ primary contact with content is via social media. It may be the case for news, but what about all other forms of content? It is when you come to the very serious issue of news, the virulent spread of misinformation, privacy, and the rampant abuse of power that trust truly matters. As Facebook is currently finding out to its cost.”
Using TMI in public space: Public memories are notoriously short, especially on digital space. There’s always another click-bait headline enticing you to move in. Or users will again ignore data privacy warnings and flood social media with too much information (TMI) – handing advertisers and marketers a golden opportunity to dangle their next bespoke offers. Satish Dave, senior director, consumer experience and digital at the research firm Kantar TNS, says some lessons have been learnt from the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. “I think the entire ecosystem – brands, advertisers, media agencies and publishers – will need to become more careful about targeting customers using social media. As per our global study on digital audiences, 40 per cent of people are concerned about the amount of information that companies have about them.”
Exploiting lack of legislation: According to Dave, legislation is bound to increase and everyone will need to make sure that data privacy is managed well. But right now that’s a loophole most social media companies are exploiting. “Consumers may have to trade-off between the so called ‘free’ service and paid content. And in some instances consumers will realize that they really cannot control all data privacy issues and will want to work with companies they can trust,” he says. At the end, it all boils down to trust. Will the new privacy policies put out by Facebook or Google convince users and advertisers that the tech-media giants have things back in control? There are no easy answers, and one can only keep an eye on the ad dollar revenues both report each quarter.
The Predators
How do tech giants make money?
To ordinary users, Facebook or Twitter or Instagram look like free-to-use social networks. But their fundamental business model is the same as any media company: build a huge inventory of audiences and sell it to advertisers.
When businesses buy advertising space on Facebook, they are actually buying access to your attention.
Tailored ads: What is ARPU?
But thanks to the massive data these tech giants have on you — the audience — they can sell tailored and targeted ads for a specific audience.
It’s the user data that makes a social account profitable: Facebook, for instance, calculates its profits based on average revenue per user (ARPU).
A typical Facebook account contributed $5.32 to its profits last year.
No match
Thanks to its scale and database, Facebook can charge companies a competitive rate for advertisements — which traditional media or ad agencies can hardly match.
This economic imbalance leaves the media and its supporting ad industry at the mercy of these digital platforms.
It also directly threatens the endurance of quality journalism, which is expensive to produce, and under economic pressure as never before.
Like Facebook, Google and Twitter operate on broadly the same model.
— Compiled from agencies
