Instagram tries out unskippable ads as Big Tech hits an unskippable growth wall

Skip reflex… You already see ads sandwiched between your friends’ Insta posts. Now you might not be able to scroll past them. Meta has confirmed it’s testing unskippable ads on Instagram, after a user posted a screenshot of the experience. A countdown timer appears to block users from scrolling their feeds until they’ve viewed an ad. Insta’s calling it “ad break” (funny, since you won’t get a break from the ad). The test shows how far Meta is willing to go to boost its bottom line.

When all else fails, rely on ads… Despite all its talk of the metaverse and the AI revolution, Meta’s lifeline is still good ol’ ads. Its revenue popped last quarter and profit more than doubled from last year as its average price per ad grew (along with ad impressions). Meanwhile, its metaverse-focused Reality Labs division kept bleeding cash (nearly $4B last quarter and $45B since late 2020). The unskippable-ads move may be a symptom of a bigger problem: Meta hasn’t been able to drive growth with its push for virtual worlds and AI integrations (see: the “Ask Meta AI Anything” chatbot it forced into its apps).

• Big Tech has gotten so big that it’s hit a growth wall, and even AI might not be able to save it. As one writer put it, there may be no more worlds left to conquer.

• Down bad: Since April 2023, top sites like FB, YouTube, Google, and X have been losing traffic. FB’s site alone has seen a 28% decline since 2021.

• Tepid: Meta’s users are still rising, but growth has majorly cooled since the boom days. After all, over a third of the world’s population uses Meta’s apps daily.