So long, UPAID

Hello LinkedIn,

Sadly, this may be my last post about User Provided Advertising ID (UPAID). After a year of hard work and no pay, I've reached a point where I can't keep it going.

Even though this may be the end of the road for UPAID, I am still convinced that the concept behind it is not only necessary but inevitable. Eventually, personalized advertising models will need to become consumer-centric, and the ideas UPAID was founded on will be at the center of that shift. So, while UPAID may not be the solution for today, I believe something like it will need to exist in the not-too-distant future.

Why UPAID Was Built—and Why It's Still Needed

We all know, digital media is undergoing a massive shift, driven by cookie deprecation and privacy regulation. Cookie-based ID's and data collection were (and still are to a large degree) the backbone of how most digital ads are bought and sold. As a result of that system breaking down, we are going to see some pretty seismic shifts.

To me, the most alarming consequence is, without advertising IDs, the price of ads tend to plummet. It’s estimated that publishers could see revenue decline by 60% or more. That’s not a sustainable future for publishers and we're already seeing the impact of declining publisher revenue in terms of layoffs.

Many of the solutions the industry is working on—such as using hashed emails, probabilistic matching (*cough* IP-based fingerprinting), and Chrome's Privacy Sandbox—are not long-term fixes.

1.) Hashed emails won't scale when users need to be logged in on every site they visit.

2.) Fingerprinting is bound to fail as anti-fingerprinting measures become more robust.

3.) As for Privacy Sandbox- I don't have much hope. Read for yourself how lackluster the results are in Criteo's blog post.

As a result, I predict more publishers will inevitably move towards subscriptions and new flexible payment models to make up the difference. The reality, though, is subscriptions won't work for most websites. Consumers are subscription-fatigued, and aren’t willing to pay for access to the majority of online content. The end result may be fine for major publications, but is likely to be catastrophic for many quality, local and niche publishers.

The UPAID Solution

UPAID was designed to offer a new model for the future of advertising. The core idea was to benefit publishers in a few key ways:

Higher CPMs for Publishers, Monetary Rewards for Consumers: UPAID sought to increase the value of audiences by rewarding users for opting into sharing an advertising ID. By offering real, tangible rewards to users, UPAID would increase the value of ads for all publishers, while rewarding consumers for their participation. One of the key benefits to UPAID vs. HEM-based solutions was, once a user had signed up, the ID would work on all websites- not just the ones where the user gave their email and logged in.

Give to get: When consumers earn money from the ads they see, they have the ability to make new types of payments for content such as 'pay per article' or 'pay for a set time period'. This model would provide an alternative revenue stream to subscriptions (shoutout Walter Isaacson's How to Save Your Newspaper for the inspiration.) With UPAID, consumers would be happy to spend a little bit to access your content because they know the money they're spending is mainly subsidized by their ad viewing.

Unlock adblock users: Consumers want to see tangible benefits to the ads you show them. Don't believe me? I asked Reddit r/Adblock community if they'd unblock ads if they got paid for seeing them. 44.5% of them said they would! You might say "the implicit value exchange of the internet is that ads pay for your access to content!" That's fine, but to most people, that is not tangible. Give people monetary rewards and you will see how many more people are willing to participate in the ad-funded value exchange.

At its core, UPAID was designed to create a more desirable, consumer-friendly ad-funded model for the open internet. If we want to maintain a "feels like free", accessible web, we have to make ads worth consumers' time while providing a fair value exchange.

What Comes Next?

Although this marks the end of UPAID, I still very much believe the need for innovative, consumer-centric advertising models will become apparent. There's a reason for the "read/write/own" web3 hype, even if it mistakenly believes "crypto" needs to be involved. Someone is going to figure that out and turn it into a multi-billion dollar company.

As for me- I want to continue working on behalf of publishers. After 10+ years on the supply side at Criteo and my recent UPAID experience, I know that publishers are the lifeblood of the internet and under the biggest existential threat. I want to find a company that works on behalf of publishers or even an actual, real-life publisher and keep working on ways to support the people that make the internet enjoyable.

If you've got a job for me, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm planning to move to the Fairfield, CT area, far enough outside of NYC to be able to afford living there, but close enough that I'll be able to commute into the city as needed. I'd love to find a role that has flexibility to work remotely when needed, but be able to go into the office and meet with people often.

Thank you to everyone who supported UPAID along the way, including the 5000+ people on the waitlist, the many dozens of ad industry people that took meetings with me and shared their valuable feedback, my cofounder Chris Maynard , my amazingly helpful advisor (and basically, coach) Josh Sturgeon , and most importantly, to my wife, Kaity, who let me pursue this dream while having 2 daycare aged kids- NOT EASY.

Thanks again and enjoy Jesse and the Rippers.

Chris Milano