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from the the-perfect-advert-for-AdBlock dept.
An interesting conspiracy theory on Business Insider:
A Business Insider reader claiming to be a former ad tech executive at a really huge, well-known news publisher then sent me a fascinating email, in which he claimed that ad tech companies deliberately serve ads slowly because everyone makes more money that way.
Basically, his theory is, when a reader clicks to read a story, the page calls for bids from advertisers on the ad space available. This bidding is supposed to take place in a few milliseconds. But, my correspondent says, ad tech companies hold open the bids much, much longer, so more bids come in, driving up the price. Publishers hate this because it makes pages load really slowly, giving readers a terrible experience. But it's hard to stop because everyone — publisher included — is taking a cut of the winning bid. So publishers and ad tech companies actually have an incentive to make pages load slowly.
[...] Generally, other sources in the ad tech business tell us that this is rubbish. But a couple also admitted that there are some shady practices out there, and it is possible for this happen. "In theory he is basically correct. Publishers and the ad networks they work with have pretty effectively gamed each other. Lots of crazy s--- happens," one source told us. "It's a wild world out there and publishers are not generally very technically competent so ad networks get away with a lot."
(Score: 1) by chucky on Wednesday July 29 2015, @10:08PM
There's a part in the article which I don't understand: "Naturally, there is a timeout (and not a massively conservative one) on this auction, so slow-responding bidders hold everything up, and therefore hold up the ad slot, and therefore the page."
Who'd wait for a slow bidder? You wait for the highest.
Scenario A:
This auction closes in 100ms. 10, 20, 25, anybody 30, 35, 40, 1-2-3, sold to the gentleman in black shirt for 40 fractions of a currency unit.
Scenario B:
This auction closes in 100ms. 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94....43, 42, 41, 40. Somebody says 40. Sold.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Marand on Wednesday July 29 2015, @10:49PM
There's a part in the article which I don't understand: "Naturally, there is a timeout (and not a massively conservative one) on this auction, so slow-responding bidders hold everything up, and therefore hold up the ad slot, and therefore the page."
Who'd wait for a slow bidder? You wait for the highest.
It's probably an eBay-style bidding where the "bidders" set maximum values they will pay for ads, and the ad server is waiting to make sure there are no slow-responding bidders that will further jack up the sale price. It'll only keep increasing as long as there are competing bidders, then stop at the lowest value that only leaves one left, waiting for either the end of the "auction" or another bidder that has a higher value set. Ending the auction later gives more time for late-response bidders to increase the price.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday July 30 2015, @03:06AM
While they are bidding, the customer figures he got yet another business page that does not work and clicks away....
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:52PM
Assuming that they don't know each other's bid, it is because you want everyone's bid. The longer the auction is held open, the more opportunity there is to bid and rebid. For example, one of the bidding companies could be seeing higher load, and therefore is doing its analytics slower.
Example 1 (two bidders = and + with the auction closing after 100ms):
Open -> =10 -> 100ms passes -> +12
In that one if they had waited a few more milliseconds they'd have made 20% more. Another example is they could do a bid that goes in rounds that get more and more specific.
Example 2 (two bidders use rounds, hidden bids)
Open -> =50 +60 -> 10 ms passes -> =90 +80 -> 40ms -> =100 +101 -> 50ms -> =105 +106
There, holding open a bit longer generates higher bids.
Now, if they actually knew each other's bid in an open auction, holding it open for as long as possible is the only way to get the highest bid as everyone who deals with auctions know about the first mover disadvantage there.