The internet has changed a lot, especially the way that a lot of people earn their money. The fact of the matter is that we often don’t know what money is being spent where and for what precise reason. This is why it is important to try and understand the reason behind money being spent on the internet, and we can start off by examining the biggest internet based industry: digital marketing. Untold amounts of money are spent on digital ads every year, but the Ad Engineering Chief of the Washington Post, Aram Zucker-Scharff, recently created a storm on Twitter after calling out the entire digital marketing industry for being fake and not reporting genuine numbers.
His tweet sparked a whirlwind of both support as well as criticism. The digital marketing industry is worth a lot of money, so this tweet was bound to cause a lot of controversy. After all, Zucker-Sharff was basically calling out an entire industry and saying that it is built on metrics that do not reflect reality. The crux of what he is saying definitely needs more attention. After all, even an internet giant such as Facebook that earns a majority of its money from ad revenue is rarely able to give statistics that accurately represent the reality of a particular matter.
Zucker-Sharff’s tweet is a good ribbon to tie on to the end of a year full of transparency and accountability for previously infallible internet giants. Support from people like Reddit’s ex CEO Ellen K. Pao gives credence to the matter, and makes it a lot more serious than it might have been otherwise. This is definitely an issue that needs to be looked into, one that would require a much more in depth look before judgments can be passed.
Read next: How Augmented Reality is Revolutionizing Marketing (infographic)
His tweet sparked a whirlwind of both support as well as criticism. The digital marketing industry is worth a lot of money, so this tweet was bound to cause a lot of controversy. After all, Zucker-Sharff was basically calling out an entire industry and saying that it is built on metrics that do not reflect reality. The crux of what he is saying definitely needs more attention. After all, even an internet giant such as Facebook that earns a majority of its money from ad revenue is rarely able to give statistics that accurately represent the reality of a particular matter.
The numbers are all fking fake, the metrics are bullshit, the agencies responsible for enforcing good practices are knowing bullshiters enforcing and profiting off all the fake numbers and none of the models make sense at scale of actual human users. https://t.co/sfmdrxGBNJ pic.twitter.com/thvicDEL29— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) December 26, 2018
Zucker-Sharff’s tweet is a good ribbon to tie on to the end of a year full of transparency and accountability for previously infallible internet giants. Support from people like Reddit’s ex CEO Ellen K. Pao gives credence to the matter, and makes it a lot more serious than it might have been otherwise. This is definitely an issue that needs to be looked into, one that would require a much more in depth look before judgments can be passed.
Read next: How Augmented Reality is Revolutionizing Marketing (infographic)
