Major online advertising platforms and their potential

Despite Facebook encountering PR issues, a former Product Lead at Facebook told Third Bridge that it is unlikely to bear any heavy repercussions or vast reductions in user numbers for the scandal. The specialist explained that considering the size of the audience and the amount of time each user spends on Facebook, “there’s no clear competitor” for the company. However, Facebook Stories could be difficult to monetise considering Stories content is generated by users. He reasoned that positioning advertising next to user-curated videos could pose a brand-safety threat. 

A Chief Executive at AdParlor analysed the metrics for pre-existing advertisements on Instagram Stories. Although he agreed that the Facebook Stories product wasn’t necessarily gaining traction, the Chief Executive stated that Instagram Stories proved a fairly good investment for companies to use as an advertising tool. The specialist noted that while users were less likely to click on an Instagram Stories’ advertisement, if they did, they were more likely to “do something positive” by making a purchase on the advertiser’s website. The Chief Executive suggested that although Facebook Stories had not yet become a substantial advertising tool, the success of Instagram Stories should make Facebook stakeholders feel positive about the potential for using its Stories product as a means of monetisation. The specialist continued by asserting that the click-to-buy model – in which customers can make purchases directly through the social network – is “really, really powerful stuff” and could prove invaluable for direct-to-consumer companies who do not want to rely on Amazon or other e-commerce websites. 

Despite this relatively negative outlook for Amazon and its future working with direct-to-consumer companies, a former General Manager of Growth at Pinterest explained that more users are searching for products directly on Amazon instead of through Google or other search engines. This means that it is becoming recognised as a discovery search platform for e-commerce products and is in direct competition with visual discovery platforms such as Pinterest. However, the former General Manager of Growth at Pinterest noted that although Pinterest content generally links directly to “discrete retailers” like Amazon and generates “millions of clicks a day”, the clicks are “entirely organic and unmonetised by Pinterest.” The former General Manager said that Pinterest has a number of different options available for monetisation, including, like Instagram, essentially using a click-to-buy model and getting a “cut of purchases… [from] the platform.” The General Manager explained that whichever model Pinterest chooses, monetisation should be fairly easy to achieve as long as the nature of the product remains unchanged as otherwise, the entry of advertising could “break… some of the magic” created by Pinterest. 

The former General Manager also explored the competitive landscape in the global market, which he viewed as an important area of growth for Pinterest. He explained that if he were still at the company, he would “invest more heavily in capturing the modality of discovery in international markets”, such as western Europe and Latin America, ahead of its competitors. Despite Pinterest’s former General Manager’s suggestion that Pinterest should look to improving its position in wealthy international markets to align with the aspirational nature of the platform, a former Media Director at Alimama insisted that it would better off trying to enter untapped markets in China, such as fourth and fifth-tier cities. He reasoned that the e-commerce sector was still continuing to grow in these areas of the country, which would offer excellent room for expansion in the advertising sector.