Why 'Boring' Is Good for Facebook's Business

Facebook lost its “cool” factor a long time ago (right around the 2010 release of “The Social Network,” in my humble estimation), but that’s not necessarily a problem.

With two billion monthly users — or more than half of the internet’s total population — it’s hard to be seen as the trendy social media platform anymore. For many Millennials and Gen Z’ers, Facebook is an afterthought — necessary only for Messenger or occasionally seeing what old classmates are up to.

But what Facebook has lost in cachet, it’s made up for in mountains of ad revenue. Mark Zuckerberg and Co. have embraced a vanilla approach, and it’s paid off in spades.

Also Read: Facebook Is Ready to Drop Big Money on Original TV Shows

This has been a concerted effort to attract more advertisers — the “safer” the platform, the more companies will turn to Facebook to market their products. And we’re seeing this play out. Facebook and Google pull in a whopping 50 percent of all online ad dollars, according to the “Global Entertainment and Media Global Outlook” report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Even more impressive (or disconcerting, depending on your outlook), the latest Meeker Report showed the two Silicon Valley behemoths accounted for 85 percent of the growth in internet ad revenue last year. In 2017, Facebook is expected to rake in more than $33 billion in online ad sales.

This success largely stems from Facebook’s ubiquity, as well as the treasure trove of data it can offer marketers. Facebook leverages its data to pinpoint the ads that’ll work best in its users’ News Feeds.

Also Read: Here's How Facebook Counters Terrorism With Artificial Intelligence

“The News Feed is a highly curated set of things where Facebook gives you what you want. It’s like looking in the mirror — anyone that complains at what’s in their News Feed should look at themselves,” Dennis Yu, Chief Technical Officer of digital marketing firm.BlitzMetrics, told TheWrap.

“It’s not like surfing around a random site and coming across questionable content about politics you don’t agree with or violence or things advertisers don’t want their stuff next to. They’re not going to see that on Facebook unless you’re actively seeking out those topics,” he continued.

But its prosperity is also a product of the blandness now inherent in the platform — something Facebook fosters by weeding out inflamatory content.

Also Read: Instagram Uses Artificial Intelligence to Eliminate 'Toxic' Comments

And it’s now beginning to apply this strategy to Instagram, its popular photo-sharing app. Like Facebook, Instagram doesn’t allow nudity, and it’s now using artificial intelligence to delete spam and “toxic” comments. This isn’t to simply appease the Morality Police — it’s to attract advertisers. Instagram is set to double its 2016 ad revenue to nearly $4 billion this year.

At the same time, social media sites with a more laissez-faire approach are having trouble staying afloat. As Brian Feldman pointed out in New York Magazine, platforms dedicated to “internet culture” like Tumblr and Twitter are hard-pressed to generate ad revenue. Marketers are terrified their ads will surface next to porn or racist diatribes.

This is less of a concern on Facebook, and the company is doubling down on its ad-friendly ways. The platform is set to launch its slate of original content later this summer; It’s steering clear of “political dramas, news [or] shows with nudity and rough language” — anything that could scare off its business partners.

Also Read: Instagram Wants Its Paid Shills to Be More Transparent

It’s another sign Facebook has fully accepted bland as a business model. And looking at its bottom line, it’s clearly a sound strategy.

'Minority Report' and 18 More Movies That Accurately Predicted Future Tech (Photos)

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accurately peered into the future of technology:
20th Century Fox
We're so used to touch screens at this point -- we use them every day on our smart phones, and even at McDonald's -- that it's easy to forget that Tom Cruise used the technology in "Minority Report."
20th Century Fox
Long before Siri, there was HAL. The ominous yet soft-spoken computer system was the antagonist in 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey." Stanley Kubrick's sinister talking computer ended up turning on its crew in a Siri user's worst nightmare.
MGM
Tech giant Elon Musk is at the helm of SpaceX, which will send two tourists to space in 2018. But "2001: A Space Odyssey" imagined commercial space travel decades ago.
MGM
Elon Musk, Google and Uber have been duking it out to bring self-driving cars to the masses, but Arnold Schwarzenegger might have jumpstarted the competition when he took a robot-controlled ride in 1990's "Total Recall."
TriStar Pictures
"The Terminator" predicted military drones in 1984 -- long before they were introduced to police forces and militaries.
Orion Pictures
Virtual reality is taking over the tech scene. You can play games in VR, watch movies and experience Coachella all from the comfort of your living room. But Hollywood predicted we'd have VR more than 20 years ago in 1992's "Lawnmower Man."
New Line Cinema
The 1982 cult classic "Blade Runner," starring Harrison Ford, predicted digital billboards, which you can see now all over the country, from Times Square in New York to the Vegas strip.
Warner Bros.
Remember when the TSA rolled out invasive body scanners and a lot of people freaked out? "Airplane II: The Sequel" imagined airport scanners that revealed a person's naked body to agents.
Paramount Pictures
Just like other industries, robots are taking over jobs in the military, too. There are even listicles outlining the "coolest" military robots. "Short Circuit" predicted this technology with the prototype robot Number 5.
Tristar pictures
Woody Allen's "Sleeper" had robots assisting surgeons by offering advice during surgery. Today, doctors use robotics to add precision to procedures.
United Artists
The beloved 1960s cartoon "The Jetsons" -- which was made into a movie in 1990 -- predicted the use of robots to clean homes. They had a robotic vacuum and a robotic maid. Can you say Roomba?
ABC
In vitro fertilization and at-home genetic testing are common place these days. "Gattaca," with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, predicted this tech in 1997.
Columbia Pictures
3D printing is used today in industries ranging from aerospace to medical. In "Weird Science," the boys 3D printed an actual girl.

Also Read: From ‘E.T.’ to ‘Explorers': When Kids Ruled the Big Screen (Photos)
Universal Pictures
We know how dangerous cyber warfare is, and countless companies have been hacked recently. 1983's "WarGames" with Matthew Broderick is all about a kid who walks the line between gaming and reality.
MGM
FaceTime, and Skype before it, are commonplace today. But it was cool new technology in 1989's "Back to the Future Part II."
Universal Pictures
There are a ton of different options out there for smart watches. This was predicted in 1990's "Dick Tracy."
Touchstone Pictures
It's so easy to order Domino's online -- you can even watch how far along in the process your pizza is. In 1995's "The Net" with Sandra Bullock, they showed ordering pizza online for the first time.
Columbia Pictures
Tinder, Bumble and OKCupid are only a few of the many, many online dating options out there. But Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were on the forefront of the online dating trend in "You've Got Mail."
Warner Bros.
VR porn is growing in popularity. Or as it's called in 1993's "Demolition Man" -- "digitized transference of sexual energies."
Warner Bros.
The 1929 movie "Woman in the Moon" predicted space travel. Obviously, we hit that milestone decades ago. And hey, they even got the shuttle shape right!

Also Read: ‘Top Gun': 30 Things You Didn’t Know About the Tom Cruise Classic (Photos)
Fritz Lang Film

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From robotic vacuums to smart watches, Hollywood got these tech trends right

Steven Spielberg's tech-heavy "Minority Report," starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie's anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accurately peered into the future of technology:

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'Minority Report' and 18 More Movies That Accurately Predicted Future Tech (Photos)

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