ever recorded
Companies like Google and Facebook are some of the wealthiest and most successful of all time.The Social Dilemma · 2020 — Capítulo 1 de 14 · 2'35" · C1
You Are the Product, Explained: rakes in money
The surface is a business explainer: Silicon Valley's giants make money without charging users. Underneath, it's an accusation. "We're the thing being sold," one voice says, and the argument keeps sharpening — from a giant computer that "rakes in money" to the claim that what is really sold is the slow change in how you think.
Qué pasa
Several interviewees take turns explaining the same business model. Google and Facebook are among the wealthiest companies ever, but they employ relatively few people; the money comes from a giant computer that rakes in cash. Advertisers, not users, are the customers. Attention is what gets sold, and one voice pushes the point further: what is really being sold is a change in your behavior.
Atento a
rakes in moneyNice, simple businessin the business oftrite
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Expresión de la escena
rakes in money
earns a lot of money quickly
Someone calls the giants one giant machine that pulls money in effortlessly, half joking, then turns to ask where that money actually comes from.
That silly mobile game rakes in money on skins alone.
También en esta escena
- Nice, simple business
praise that quietly sets up a contrast
- in the business of
whose actual line of work is
- trite
worn out from overuse
- competing for your attention
fighting to get and keep your focus
- a little too simplistic
a soft way to say that's oversimplified
Todo lo marcado en esta escena
22 notas en 33 frases
Let the s slide into in so the two words land as one chunk.
They just have this giant computer that rakes in money, right? Uh...someone who puts money into a field
So, I've been an investor in technology for 35 years.sell goods to buyers
The first 50 years of Silicon Valley, the industry made products-- hardware, software-- sold 'em to customers. Nice, simple business.them, said casually — Fine in fast speech; write them in anything formal.
The first 50 years of Silicon Valley, the industry made products-- hardware, software-- sold 'em to customers. Nice, simple business.hand over money for something
It's a little even trite to say now, but... because we don't pay for the products that we use, advertisers pay for the products that we use.you're gets flattened here; don't give it the weight of two words.
The classic saying is: "If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product."subject clause: The whole what-clause is the subject; the real news arrives after is.
But what they don't realize is they're competing for your attention.work out how to do it
Let's figure out how to get as much of this person's attention as we possibly can.the maximum amount we can get
Let's figure out how to get as much of this person's attention as we possibly can.make someone do it
How much time can we get you to spend?Three words bunch into one beat; keep the middle light.
How much of your life can we get you to give to us?become understandable
When you think about how some of these companies work, it starts to make sense.regard something as
There are all these services on the Internet that we think of asas payment for something
They pay in exchange for showing their ads to us.The weight sits on too; little barely registers.
That's a little too simplistic.a shift in something
It's the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product.cleft sentence: The frame moves the weight onto the change itself rather than on attention or users.
It's the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product.relative clause: The that-clause limits nothing else, and the passive could be called keeps the naming hypothetical.
There's nothing else on the table that could possibly be called the product.earn money out of something
That's the only thing there is for them to make money from.toward the outcome you prefer
If you can go to somebody and you say, "Give me $10 million, and I will change the world one percent in the direction you want it to change..."worth a great deal
It's the world! That can be incredible, and that's worth a lot of money.You Are the Product, explicado
What's really going on
On the surface this is neutral exposition, but every line is building an indictment. The shift is placed in time: for fifty years Silicon Valley sold products to customers — 'Nice, simple business' — and for the last ten years the biggest companies have been, in the words of one speaker, 'in the business of selling their users.' The classic saying, 'If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product,' gets the plain reading: 'Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers.' Then comes a pushback, 'That's a little too simplistic,' and a sharper claim: the real product is 'the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception.' Elsewhere a voice asks, 'How much of your life can we get you to give to us?' Put together, a business model turns into a claim about what you are.
Theme
MoneyA free product is reframed as a market where users are the goods being sold.
PowerA handful of companies quietly shape behavior at scale, one imperceptible nudge at a time.
Escucha con atención
- rakes in — Let the s slide into in so the two words land as one chunk.
- If you're not — you're gets flattened here; don't give it the weight of two words.
- get you to — Three words bunch into one beat; keep the middle light.
- a little too — The weight sits on too; little barely registers.
For the last ten years, the biggest companies in Silicon Valley have been in the business of selling their users.The industry's core product changed: users themselves are what gets sold, not hardware or software.
The classic saying is: "If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product."Since advertisers foot the bill, the user is the commodity being delivered to them.
But what they don't realize is they're competing for your attention.These look like tools, but the real contest is over how much of your time and focus they can hold.
How much of your life can we get you to give to us?The metric is not minutes but life: engagement is framed as time extracted from a person.
We're the product. Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers.A plain restatement of the business model: attention is packaged and sold to the people buying ads.
Preguntas sobre esta escena
Who are the actual customers of these companies?
Advertisers. The scene spells it out — "Advertisers are the customers" — then adds the flip side: "We're the thing being sold." Users pay nothing; the people buying ads are the ones the business serves.
How can they be so wealthy with so few employees?
Because the money comes from a machine, not a large staff. One line points to "this giant computer that rakes in money," and the scene's answer to "what are they being paid for?" is advertising.
Why does someone call "we're the product" too simplistic?
The next line calls it "a little too simplistic." Attention is only part of it; what is really sold, the scene argues, is "the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception."
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