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this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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There have been companies making profit from the internet a lot longer than you suggest. They've just gotten more ruthless these days as its much easier to collect user data to monetize when theres a requirement that normal people have to use it to function in socisty.
So yes, more people that can't participate in society without internet makes more marks for these vultures and it becomes an oroboros of cringe
Sometimes I wonder if there is an inflection point where the personal data becomes overwhelming to the point of useless too.
Like, if I want everybody who has looked up an adjacent product or related product and has the disposable income to purchase my product. Well, how many people is that and how many of those people are high volume Internet users who google whatever thought comes into their head, and how many of those people are fortified behind layers of spam filters or the natural filter of advertisment fatigue?
I assume the idea these people are jerking themselves off to is that they can get really sophicated predictive profiles of people, and this will somehow be monetizable. But I just don't see it. Tik tok seems to be the best in the biz and it appears to be a slightly more elaborate version of "people who looked at these things you looked at also looked at these things, I bet you'd like to look at this too"
To be clear about timeframe, I'm talking early days of the TCP/IP protocol. Like when HTTP was being drafted, the days of BBSs. If you look at the fundamental design of the Internet, it was intended to be regulated by subject matter experts from around the world. Not for and by any one country, but for use by everyone, borders be damned.
Software monetization was certainly happening, but largely not by way of the Internet, software was sold in stores and magazines and by mail via floppy disks.
Like sure, it didn't take long for nerds in their garages to figure out that their lists of URLs could be profitable, but this was not instantly recognized by the ruling class.