| ▲ | GuB-42 4 days ago |
| Anthropic seems to want to make you buy a subscription, not show you ads. ChatGPT seems to be more popular to those who don't want to pay, and they are therefore more likely to rely on ads. |
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| ▲ | forgotoldacc 4 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| In the 2020s, subscriptions don't preclude showing ads. Companies will milk money in as many ways as they can |
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| ▲ | dspillett 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | And even a subscription that gives a truly ad-free experience doesn't preclude the bit that I actually object to most: collecting data about me & my activity and selling it on. | |
| ▲ | 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | anon1395 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | (Netflix as an example) | | |
| ▲ | GuB-42 4 days ago | parent [-] | | And cable companies, and magazines. This is not something from the 2020s, it is a centuries old thing. But these are entertainment. For all the time advertising has been present, work tools have been relatively immune. I don't remember seeing ads in IDE for instance, and while magazines had ads, technical documents didn't. I have never seen electronic components datasheets pitching for measuring equipment and soldering irons for instance. That's why I don't expect Anthropic to go with ads it they follow the path they seem to have taken, like coding agents. People using these tools are likely to react very badly to ads, if there is some space to put ads in the first place, and these are also the kind of people who can spend $100/month on a subscription, way more than what ads will get you. |
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| ▲ | cantor_S_drug 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| They might be coming from different directions. But these things, as often they do, will converge. Too big of a market to leave. |
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| ▲ | chii 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| and netflix used to think they dont want to show ads either. |
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| ▲ | matwood 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Netflix likely doesn't want to show ads, but the market would rather watch ads than pay full price for a service. https://www.theverge.com/news/667042/netflix-ad-supported-ti... | | |
| ▲ | chii 4 days ago | parent [-] | | > the market would rather watch ads no, netflix wants more income, and by having a product be ad supported, they can try to earn more. The "market" is not a person, and doesn't have "wants". | | |
| ▲ | matwood 4 days ago | parent [-] | | From the article: > Netflix has more than doubled the number of people watching its ad-supported tier over the last year. At its upfront presentation for advertisers on Wednesday, the company revealed that the $7.99 per month plan now reaches more than 94 million users around the world each month – a big increase from the 40 million it reported in May 2024 and the 70 million it revealed last November. 1/3 of Netflix users (the market) prefer ads over paying to avoid them. | | |
| ▲ | hadlock 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | A lot of "netflix users" are middle and high school age kids in third world countries using a borrowed account. User context matters a lot. If someone's friends-friends-friends uncle changes their password, it's no surprise those "netflix users" would switch to an ad-supported model. It's possible but unlikely the 12 year old kid watching anime on a shared/borderline stolen account has the resources necessary to buy an ad free account at US prices. | | |
| ▲ | rkomorn 3 days ago | parent [-] | | But the ad-supported tier isn't free either. I don't think the difference for a 12yo is $7.99 for standard with ads vs $17.99 for standard. It's $0 vs any non-zero dollar amount. |
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| ▲ | rkomorn 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | This leaves me somewhere between surprised and shocked. | | |
| ▲ | FooBarWidget 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Maybe you shouldn't be. The ad-hating paranoid HN user is not representative of the general population. Probably the exact opposite, in fact. My wife and mother love ads, they are always on the hunt for the latest good deals and love discount shopping. When I tried to remove the ads on their computers or in the postal mail, they protested. I think they are far more representative of the general population. | | |
| ▲ | rkomorn 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | People opting for "free with ads" makes sense. It's the "pay but still get ads" thing that gets me, but I guess some people just want to pay the bare minimum. | |
| ▲ | FergusArgyll 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yeah, I've encountered more than one person who didn't want me to install ublock origin for them because "Then I won't see any ads". People have different preferences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ | | |
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| ▲ | serf 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| as a former paying user it felt more like they were buying my subscription with a decent product so that they could sell their business prospects to investors by claiming a high subscription count. I have never encountered such bad customer service anywhere -- and at 200 bucks a month at that. |
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| ▲ | puilp0502 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Can you elaborate on the "bad customer service"? I've never engaged in Claude's support team, but curious to know what you've experienced. |
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| ▲ | mrheosuper 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| so ChatGPT will become "saleman". And i do not trust any saleman. |
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| ▲ | __MatrixMan__ 4 days ago | parent | next [-] | | They're all salesmen, they were trained on the web which is jam packed with SEO content. | | |
| ▲ | aswegs8 4 days ago | parent [-] | | Interesting point. Never thought about AI slop being fed by SEO slop. |
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| ▲ | bigfishrunning 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | You shouldn't be trusting an LLM either, so this is a real sideways move. | |
| ▲ | FergusArgyll 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | The plan is not ads said by chatgpt - it's ads on the side that are relevant to the conversartion (or you in general). Or affiliate links. That's my understanding. |
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