The move to Mexico has opened my eyes to a whole new world. And I don’t mean because I’m in another country (although that’s also true, Puerto Vallarta is a stark contrast to NYC in just about every way possible). What I’m talking about is how the Internet treats people in different locations.
It’s no secret that media streaming sites, such as Hulu, don’t function outside the US. If you visit Hulu from Mexico (or France, or Zimbabwe…) Hulu will display a message that you’re outside their ad-supported geobubble, and thus, cannot view it’s content.
Aside from this being a total buzzkill (how am I going to watch my Daily Show
Lets take another example of location-based advertising. Facebook, the epitome of “how can we make targeted ad revenue work” also fails hard in this respect. Even though my language of choice on Facebook is set to English, and my networks are all US-Based, about 80% of the advertisements shown to me on Facebook are in Spanish. Even worse, I’ve seen plenty of ads telling me how I can “earn a green card and gain my right to work in America.”
Umm… really? Wow, cool. It’s not like I’m an American citizen or anything.
So, it’s easy to complain, but we need to address the issue and offer solutions, and while I think my suggestion could be considered a bit ‘backwards’, it’s a hell of a lot better than this short-sighted “you are your IP address” mentality that the Internet is currently resorting to. I want Hulu to send me a letter. A real letter, like with a postage stamp and everything (yes, those still exist). Let me verify my US address, let me convince you that although I may be currently viewing your content from the lovely beaches of Puerto Vallarta, I am indeed a US citizen, and when you show me advertisements, it’d be much more effective ad-targeting for you to show me ones from the US than from Mexico.
I think your advertisers would see the logic in this, especially as expatriate communities continue to boom.
This blog belongs to Jade Rauenzahn, a 25 year-old web developer who lives in Santa Clara, CA.
Jade,
As always, it’s a pleasure to read your posts and I hope you are having a great time at your *current* location.
I agree with you to some extent…truth of the matter is that you are an exception. Advertisers would prefer to take the risk of missing some relevant audience while filtering 90% of irrelevant traffic. If BestBuy don’t ship to Mexico, why bother targeting you? If you are temporarily there, they’ll catch you when you are back in the US.
FaceBook is a whole different story. They are now working on their Ad network that will use much more info from your profile rather than just your current IP location.
Behavioral Ad Networks/profile based networks are facing many litigation issues these days due to privacy concerns. I object to these concerns because we have to face the fact that we didn’t find a better model to support the free web other than it being ad supported. If we are bound to get ads (don’t get me wrong, I LOVE ads which are interesting/entertaining), they might as well be targeted and interesting and as long as some data is being collected about me in order to achieve that – I’m fine with that.
The Hulu issue is a bit different than IP targeting for ads. Look at the old TV model – if you want to get US content from a different country, you will have to pay your cable company for that. Even TV ads and content (like news) are location targeted… I have a different suggestion for Hulu – create an account which costs $1. They charge it to your credit card. Your credit card must have a US billing address. You’ll be able to watch the content from anywhere, as long as you are logged in. I am sure you are aware that there are ways to overcome this limitation so you can catch your Daily Show
I hope all is well.
Amit
Jade. Tens of thousands of US citizens that have retired in Mexico share your frustration. We still use US products (DISH, Vonage, Amazon, EBAY to name a few). We watch US network channels and see the US ads they run. We order things from US and have friends and family bring down on visits or we bring them back after a visit to the US. SOOO, it is VERY frustrating that straeming content internet sites refuse to let us connect.
By the way, it isn’t only the streaming content we can’t get. I bought my 26yr-old daughter a Zune last year and she brought it down so that I could help her set it up. The Zune website wouldn’t let us in. I just followed a link to a special offer (wanted to order it for my daughter, who lives in US), but was refused.
I am now in the market for a way to mask my actual IP and make it seem like I am physically in the US. There are so many Americans living and visiting other countries. There should be a way we can be told apart from the citizens of that country!
Diana