How One Web Browser Is Changing the Landscape of Online Advertising
The Brave browser aims to give control back to the user
Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn’t be the price we accept for just getting on the internet.” — Gary Kovacs
Before the internet became a commercial necessity, the advertisement business was one of the most unique jobs in the corporate world. It is one of the few industries to have built its foundation on creativity, art, and business. In the past, content creators had to earn your time and level of engagement with ads. Sadly, today the internet allows them to track your movements and preempt your next move almost without your consent.
From the point of privacy and independence to make decisions, customers were truly kings before the internet.
The growing demand for the internet eventually pushed companies and creators into advertising their content online. Online advertising came at a cost that had to be paid by the customers with their time and privacy. For the longest time, internet users were not aware of how their data was being used to try and redirect their own decisions on the web. Clickbait ads became the norm and companies made hefty profits while customers were losing control.
The goal of advertising today is not to be creative or engaging, but rather to entice you into buying a product or a service by following your footprints on the web. This may not be illegal, unethical, or immoral, but it indeed falls in that grey area.
To tackle the issue of users losing their data on the web for advertisers without their knowledge, Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy created the Brave browser—which incentivizes its users in cryptocurrency to view ads at their discretion without compromising on data privacy, giving the users 100% control of their decisions.
Sound too good to be true?
Before we dive in, let’s consider our current online advertisements and the areas where it falls short.
The present online ad-model for businesses
Ever since traffic on the internet has increased, so has the number of advertisements on websites. Today, it does not stop at the number of rising ads that users have to watch. Instead, with the help of ad trackers, businesses have the unchecked and unregulated power to follow you and passively instigate you into making a decision you are not fully convinced to make.
For example: If you’re browsing for a pair of headphones on Amazon and not sure which one to buy, the minute you view something on the website, the ad trackers get to work and start tracking your movements on the internet.
Every site you visit after that will send you some sort of signal on the various options of headphones you are missing out on or how they are available at a considerable discount. This is very evident on popular websites like YouTube and Facebook.
No matter how strong your rational decision-making ability to purchase something, the perseverance of the ad trackers makes all of us at some point give in to making a decision, we are not fully ready to make.
Today we can relate this feeling with the term — impulse buying.
The trade-off we make to view ads we don’t want to watch and purchase something we aren’t sure of purchasing, after coming under its influence is very rarely discussed and even lesser-known by the users on the internet.
Companies access your data, track your movements, and try to advertise their content so that they can make one more sale. In a way, you are nothing but the byproduct for companies that are trying to increase their profits.
Out of the three parties involved in the ad industry, the user, i.e. you and me, are the ones at a loss. We unknowingly give our data, time, and attention to ads we do not want to watch. Advertising companies make a profit by using your information to target you with better ads. Advertising platforms like Google, YouTube, and Facebook make their money by getting a commission from the companies for allowing them to have access to you and marketing their content.
How Brave is transforming the existing ad-model
Brave is a web browser that is built on the same platform as Google Chrome, but it has one fundamental difference from Chrome and every other browser on the market. Brave gives the user the power to make their decision on how much information they want to share with websites and whether or not they want to watch any advertisements at all.
On Brave, rather than choosing to opt-out of advertisements with the help of ad blockers, you have the choice to opt-in for them. So if you have the option not to watch ads, why you would watch them, right?
For starters, ads on Brave are served to you without having access to any of your personal information. To operate on the Brave browser, you do not need to create an account or provide any information about yourself. All ads stay locally on the software of your device. Therefore, the only data advertisers get is that someone is engaging with their content; they do not know who that person is.
Ads on Brave are targeted explicitly to you based on your ability to request them. They are anonymously served to you and do not follow you if you click on them. You get to choose the frequency of ads shown to you, and they come in the form of notification on the side of your screen rather than taking up your entire web page.
The answer to the question, “Why do people dance in the shower, but run from the rain?” is the same as what Brave browser gives to its users — consent
You get paid in Cryptocurrency to view the advertisements Brave sends your way. This is probably one of the game-changing moves they have made to recreate and innovate an industry which while heavily reliant on customers, gives them very little credit or incentive.
Paying customers to watch advertisements
Brave operates on the principle of ensuring all parties involved in the process of advertising are incentivized on their browser. To facilitate this goal, they have created their Cryptocurrency known as the Basic Attention Token (BAT).
Assume you choose to watch an Ad on Brave. That means you gave your time and attention to watch the content of a company that is trying to sell you a product. Let’s assume that company is a VPN provider. To showcase the Ad to you, it has to pay Brave a certain amount.
When the VPN provider pays Brave that amount, Brave shares 70% of the revenue with you in their cryptocurrency BAT for viewing that advertisement. This could result in making five dollars a month or more only for viewing ads. At the time of writing this article, the value of one BAT is USD 0.38. Here is the kicker to that deal, if the price of the BAT goes up to one or a hundred dollars, that money is all yours to keep and profit from if you choose to sell that cryptocurrency.
Tackling the issues of online advertising
The Brave model addresses two crucial factors which are currently not being catered to:
First, it ensures complete privacy of the user while showing them ads and disables tracking their activity on the internet.
Second, it provides ad publishers with a more target-oriented approach to reach customers. Since the users have 100% ownership of the decision to view or not view an ad, the probability of conversion increases for the publishers as well. If a user is interested in an Ad, the likelihood that she/he will click on it to engage in the product or service will increase.
The
average web click rate on Google is 1%
for advertisements. With Brave’s business model, the average click rates have increased by nine times.
The approach has been one where all three parties involved in a transaction are incentivized, making it as close to fair and transparent as possible, resulting in greater engagement levels between users and content creators.
Brave is playing an instrumental role in evolving the landscape of the online ad business. It has ventured into an area where it gives you back control without having to compromise on your ability to access the internet freely.
Another area they are trying to change intentionally or unintentionally is one where the companies with deep pockets do not have control of showing the highest number of ads. The current model is made for big companies by big companies. The more money you have, the more you can pay platforms to show ads to users frequently. With Brave, since the users decide when to watch an advertisement without being tracked, there is very little anyone can do to influence them.
The change implemented by Brave is one of profound magnitude which brings along a great deal of optimism, control, and privacy in the hands of the users of the internet. Something that has never been done before.
See you next time…