INfluencia: For consumers of digital services, the context has changed radically in recent years. How is it to be explained?
Jerome Colin: Yes, it is the end of what we might call “free”. It was a time of abundance of content and services that one could consume without paying much and/or without having to reveal a lot of personal information. In video, music, information, social networks, all of that disappears.
There are several reasons for this: Money has been free for startups for years. This has led to abuses such as “quick commerce”, where companies try to develop at very high losses, financed by venture capital funds. Their idea was to create an oligopoly situation in the long term so that they could then increase their prices and make a profit. He succeeded Amazon for example, after two decades of losses. But now that is no longer possible: with interest rates rising, financiers are demanding accountability, we must now strive for profitability.
Furthermore, advertising in the media has always been a source of income, and this will increasingly be the case for all platforms. But given GDPR restrictions and the gradual disappearance of third-party cookies, it is becoming increasingly important for media outlets to force data collection on users.
In the house of Disney PlusB. the call price is €6.99, it’s over
INfluencia: What does this mean specifically for consumers?
Jerome Colin: The consequences are becoming increasingly radical, firstly through an increase in prices. In the house of Disney PlusFor example, the call price of 6.99 euros is over: while the service lost $1.4 million in 2022, it plans to be profitable in 2024. Netflix also raised its prices. In parallel with price increases, video streaming platforms are introducing offers with advertising to generate additional revenue. At the moment, these promotional offers are quite simple: they are sold to advertisers relatively expensively and with little targeting, but they will gradually become more important.
Users pay the same as before, but with advertising.
This means users pay the same as before, but with advertising. Therefore, there are fewer and fewer differences to conventional television players. In the USA, many consumers canceled their very expensive cable subscriptions and switched to multiple streaming subscriptions. However, these days these offers are just as expensive as cable…
For example, Le Monde is starting to place banners in its subscriber applications.
INfluencia: This movement also goes beyond online videos…
Jerome Colin: Yes, that is the case with music streaming, where prices and advertising pressure are also increasing. We also see it with home delivery: with Delivery, You can now choose between two subscription offers to get deliveries, while with Uber the prices have increased significantly and advertising arrives in the application… And then also with online information: even on free websites there is now “Become everywhere Installs “cookie walls” that allow you to log in to avoid being tracked. Advertising is even used in premium subscriptions: Le Monde, for example, is starting to place banners on its subscriber applications.
Influence: SHowever, is this expansion of advertising offerings rather positive for advertisers?
Jerome Colin: In this context, platforms and publishers will seek to make better use of their proprietary data. Brands will have more and more support options available to them, even as ultra-targeting capabilities are reduced. We should see a decline in programmatic negotiations – increasingly difficult to measure – in favor of over-the-counter negotiations with a more contextual, socio-demographic or intentional focus.