What is the economic value of online behavioral data? It is a seemingly simple question. Define the terms. Behavioral data refers to information produced as a result of actions, typically commercial behavior using a range of devices connected to the Internet, such as a PC, tablet, or smartphone. Behavioral data tracks the sites visited, the …
Hosting Content on Facebook is about Ad Tracking
News came through recently that Facebook will host news sites’ content. Apparently, Buzzfeed and the New York Times are first off the block for this. While we don’t know precisely what it will mean, there is much consternation about news sites losing their distinctive brand and eventually being beholdent to Facebook. John Gruber even invoked …
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Google's New Market for Contributions
Google have just launched a new service for publishers called Contributor. Here is how it works. A Publisher signs up to the service Consumers can also sign up for the service with a monthly contribution of their choice When a signed-up consumer visits a signed-up publisher, some of their monthly contribution is paid to the …
Baking the Data Layer
The cookie turned 20 just the other day. More than a tasty morsel of technology, two decades of experimentation have created considerable value around its use. The cookie originated with the ninth employee of Netscape, Lou Montulli. Fresh out of college in June 1994, Montulli sought to embed a user’s history in a browser’s functions. …
Disruption from the inside: NYT Edition
The New York Times Innovation Report that was "leaked" last week is a fascinating document. It covers the struggles the NYT is facing in many respects. Well, I say in many respects because while the report was at a solid level explaining trends with a few graphs one cannot help but wonder what is being made …
Will ad-avoidance kill content?
Writing in the New Yorker, Tim Wu argues that ad-avoidance will always be present but won't necessarily be a disaster for media industries. The individual benefits are obvious. But is avoiding ads responsible or sustainable? It makes the advertising industry nervous, and many in the content industry, joined by some academics, see ad-avoiders as content-killers. The …
The theory of newspaper woes
Susan Athey, Emilio Calvano and myself finally released our NBER working paper this week on the impact of the Internet on the news media. Having chatted with a journalist trying to decode our maths -- which by the way was critical in developing our theory -- I thought I'd link here to some more readable …
Digitopoly 