Internet Companies Subsidize Third World Countries
Many internet companies, especially content driven companies that are free services monetized through advertising, tend to subsidize third world users. These users can make up a bulk of a site’s traffic, but create very few monetization opportunities. Friendster for example is huge in the Philippines, and their plan for US & European advertising dollars has gone out the window. There’s also Orkut, which is big in Brazil.
This subsidization is espeecially true if a site has just enough US & European traffic (or traffic that comes with high paying advertising dollars) that the users from the developing world are overlooked. Because if you’re friendster you have to make a tough decision on hatching a plan to either attract more traffic from US & others, or how to monetize with traffic from the Philippines. If you’re scraping by already, it’s tempting to overlook the stream of traffic that doesn’t pay for itself.
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