A Bilibili influencer recently posted a scathing critique of a major Chinese streaming app’s advertising practices — calling out the flood of ads, shady tactics, and outright ad fraud.
Takeaways
Ads on logos — yes, really
Some apps even slap ads directly on their logos just to squeeze out more exposure.
Ewww.
These logo-banner ads even show up in the App Store. Imagine Apple spending decades perfecting its ecosystem, only to have Chinese apps free-riding on their storefront real estate. Tim Cook probably couldn’t have imagined this level of “creativity.”
Ads are everywhere
Within just five minutes of “normal” usage, one see 50+ ads shoved in your face. Opening the app? Banner ad. Pause a video? Another ad. Even the 弹幕 (bullet comments) have ads.
Ad fraud is real…
The influencer uncovered a 1.7-second inflation on 90-second video ads.
These opening ads can cost up to ¥456 per 1,000 views per 15 seconds. With 365 billion monthly active events, this translates into over $10 billion in extra revenue.
Intransparent sales channels. Complicated pricing. Implicit and explicit ad fraud. All sounds not well. But the worst part is, this sheer volume of ads is invading every corner of our attention.
I think the industry has been stuck in a bullshit equilibrium of “whatever this is,” and it’s unsustainable. If they don’t fix it, they’ll lose users — not just to competitors, but even to pirate sites that ironically offer a better viewing experience.
Here’s the OG video (in Chinese, with translatable subtitles)