Video Ads Are Coming To All Your Uber Apps - Slashdot

Video Ads Are Coming To All Your Uber Apps

• Eh, I don't blame em. I'll just navigate away from their app while I'm in the car though. Like hell I'm going to pay any attention to an ad. Then again, peak Uber for me was 2019. Now? Only when I really need one, which is quite rare these days.

• by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15, 2023 @06:40PM (#63606342)

  So, apart from being stalked by amoral employees (not any more, allegedly...), having the fare jacked on me whenever Uber thinks they can get away with it, and general lawbreaking - Uber now wants to whore me out to their advertisers while I pay them for the car ride?

  I am now even less of a customer, even more a resource to extract and exploit.

  Better to be like me and just not be an Uber customer at all.
  
  BTW: Uber will, I saw somewhere, now let you hail a ride just by calling their phone number, (whatever that is,) so what I'd do is just do that. Then you don't have to use their stupid app, you don't have to get advertised at, and you still get the dubious benefit of paying way too much to ride in a car driven by someone who is barely getting paid enough of a portion of the money you'll pay to ride to cover their costs of being a "private contractor," while they pocket the rest. The more people advertise at me, the more I refuse to watch, read, listen, etc.
  
  When ads became too annoying on TV, I stopped watching TV. When ads stuck their fat stupid ass into podcasts, I deleted my podcast app and went back to listening to my own vast music collection. Anyone who doesn't like people like me who refuse to be advertised at, (not to, AT,) have only the advertising industry to blame. Their only legitimate purpose is to inform people of the existence and features of products, goods or services. Instead, they try to wheedle their way into our subconscious minds with their insidious jingles and annoying catchphrases, trick us with lies and convince us to spend money we don't have on shit we don't need, forcing us to work more and longer and harder at jobs we hate. Worse, we are often convinced to go deep into debt, which means paying even more money just for the privilege of spending money. Break the cycle. Fuck advertisers and advertising, and when someone tries shoehorning ads into new places, PUNISH them. Boycott them. Bankrupt them. Let them know you DO NOT accept this attempt to abuse you, and you will PUNISH them for it. IF YOU DON'T, YOU ARE REWARDING THEM FOR TRYING TO FUCK YOU. FUCK THAT, AND FUCK THEM.
  
  P.S.... I actually HAD the Uber app as a hedge in case I needed to get anywhere that I can't get myself, and now I'm going to close my account with them and delete the app (which I've almost never used) off my fucking phone because... well, by now you know why. I will NOT reward people for pulling this kind of shit. You shouldn't either, or you will see MORE of it. You allow this, you tolerate this, and before you know it, the ad will REQUIRE you to interact with it, or it will cancel your ride, and you will be stuck wherever you were, and either have to start all over again, or walk. You know it's coming. One day, the app will demand access to your front and back cameras and will take video of you to make sure you're staring at the screen. I'm calling it early... they'll be called, "REPEAT AFTER MEs" or RAM ads. That's where the person IN the ad recites a phrase, and you'll have to be recorded repeating that phrase to acknowledge receipt of the ad. Once again, at the risk of being repetitive: FUCK. THAT. SHIT.

  • That's a brilliant rant, and I wish I had mod points so I could mod you up. I also wish you hadn't posted anonymously, so more people would read what you wrote.

    I too am deeply anti-advertising. I don't mind ads too much when they're embedded in YouTube videos where the revenue / benefits go directly to the channel and where I can easily skip past them. My ad blocking and script blocking take care of the rest of the shit.

    And I WILL NOT put up with advertising built into products that I've paid for. That's wh

    • To be fair, everyone hates lawyers until they need one. To my knowledge, no one has uttered the phrase, "I'm in deep shit. I need a marketing exec, stat!"
• If they're gouging, they aren't very successful at it - Uber is still losing money [businessmodelanalyst.com].

  Unless they can raise prices, or pay drivers less, or generate additional income streams... they're in a tight spot.

  • Now that they have the platform built, why not cut some costs? They're done innovating, like all large companies, so no future growth prospects there. How much does it really cost just to keep an app running in AWS?

• You were never the customer. You are just the resource to be exploited for the investors.

• "I am now even less of a customer, even more a resource to extract and exploit."

  This is the fourth (or fifth, can't remember) "industrial revolution" they were frothing through their mouths over not too long ago.

  See, they are "mining" you to "extract the valuable resources" within. This will count as manufacturing like assembling a hamburger at a fast food restraunt now counts as manufacturing in the numbers the government puts out yearly.