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Reddit keeps pushing me to use the app. Why?
12 points by allstunned on Aug 10, 2021 | hide | past | favorite | 6 comments
To be fair this isn't isolated to reddit. I confess my technical acumen leans on the SA side of the house. I am curious: can they soak up more user data versus a browser? I am referring to "industry accepted practices" for reputable sites/apps, not malicious ones. I just always seem to be getting pushed towards an app, often with missing functionality, and i just want to understand why.


Yep. An app can get very accurate location info, unique device ids, and more. Plus nobody can run an adblocker in an app like they can in a browser.


Apps can access a lot more info about your device and your profile, and that data is all rolled up to sell ads.

in short: greed.


https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27553971


I'm assuming the native app makes each user worth 5x a web user. There's prob a number out there somewhere.

So, if a web user is worth $1/user/month in profit, an app user is worth $5/user/month in profit.


The app can and will show you a lot of ads and you can't block them.

Your browser happily blocks them.


Thanks for the link and all who replied! Will read that thread and keep avoiding apps.




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