Perhaps Vivaldi Should Buy YouTube Advertisements (Sponsored Messages)?

[dracho]

I honestly don't have a clue what Vivaldi's versus Opera GX's income is, or expenses, or anything... but it pains me to watch a MoistCr1tikal video and listen to Charlie recommend an inferior browser to 10 million subscribers...

Does Vivaldi have any plans for paid advertisement? Perhaps smaller, technical channels, especially computer science content creators, would be an ideal place to start.

Word of mouth is good and all, but many more people will hear Charlie's praise rather than the comment I made:

Vivaldi is the best browser. The original creator of Opera left the company when Opera sold out to China. He went on to create Vivaldi, a Chromium browser, from scratch. It includes virtually everything Opera GX does, plus much, much more. It's the most flexible and customizable browser, allowing users to even alter the GUI in any way imaginable by editing the HTML, CSS, and/or javascript of which the browser is built. Unlike the Chinese Opera GX, Vivaldi can be configured to be very private. A large, dedicated community surrounds Vivaldi as well, and the software is constantly getting new features and tweaks suggested and voted upon by forum members. Of course, Chrome extensions are supported, but the forums contain dozens of pages of user-created addons or snippets of code that allow quick and easy editing (read: copying and pasting into text files.) The way the two browsers make their money is from preinstalled bookmarks. When you click the ebay bookmark in either browser, you're directed to a Vivaldi/Opera page and then quickly redirected to ebay. Each time a user clicks one of these links and is redirected, the company (Vivaldi/Opera) earn a tiny amount of money directly from ebay. I also find it hilarious how Opera GX includes a VPN... a straight "send my data to the communists" option. Lol. Do your own research. Watch an interview on youtube with Opera/Vivaldi creator Jon von Tetzchner. Check out Vivaldi's forums. This message was not sponsored in any way. In fact, I used Opera for over a decade and recommended it to many people, especially power users. However when the board votes to sell out and the creator publicly quits on moral grounds and [re-]creates a hugely powerful piece of software... that's something to take notice of and look into.

[leo32345]

This is an interesting idea, Vivaldi could do with more users. Partnering with Youtubers isn't exactly something that has been done a lot, but I'm not sure if the Vivaldi Marketing team believes that is the best idea.

Vivaldi could consider trying getting noticed by getting into CES 2023 (https://www.ces.tech), partnering with sites like stackoverflow to promote it to developers, or partnering with schools to have kids use Vivaldi, as I have suggested earlier

[luetage]

@leo32345 Not sure where you’re coming from, but Vivaldi literally hired a youtuber last year.

[leo32345]

True, Vivaldi did hire a new Youtuber. I mean that Vivaldi isn't the company that has done Google Ads and Youtuber Sponsorships, which is what some other browsers have done.

[TbGbe]

@dracho said in Perhaps Vivaldi Should Buy YouTube Advertisements (Sponsored Messages)?:

but it pains me to watch a MoistCr1tikal video and listen to Charlie recommend an inferior browser to 10 million subscribers

IMHO; sponsored recommendations are not part of any "technical content" reviews.

[guigirl]

I'm quite fascinated by some peeps' obsession with V's business model, & how they might extend their revenue options. All i care about is that V is viable without resorting to any of: exploiting their users, deviating from a high ethical standard, banning purple themes. That's enough, Shirley?

[WildEnte]

@guigirl said in Perhaps Vivaldi Should Buy YouTube Advertisements (Sponsored Messages)?:

That's enough, Shirley?

You could take the selfish route and say "no business success -> no future for my preferred program; more business success -> more resources to work on the program and iron out the kinks

You could also take the community approach and say that apparently many folks who roam these halls care about the company not just because of the product itself but also (due to the frequent interactions) about the folks in the company, and given that their collective shapes a company whose idea of business ethics some would call refreshingly ethical, also want to see such a company succeed.

Whether Youtube ads are the right way to achieve this is another matter.

[guigirl]

@wildenteTo try to clarify... nothing about my post should be misinterpreted as meaning i do not want V to enjoy financial success. All i am saying is that so long as it's achieved by good decent purpley methods, the actual details don't need to matter to users.

As an aside, i also laugh at all these threads coz the idea that users are going to tell V how to run their business, with V then saying "oh yeah, cool, we'll do it that way, now" is risible.

[Pesala]

@dracho I don't think it would be a good idea to pay Google to advertise Vivaldi. YouTube is owned by Google. Can they be trusted?

In my opinion, Vivaldi should focus all of their resources on making a better product, then they will get free advertising from satisfied users.

[sgunhouse]

Here I was expecting to see the words "April Fools" in here somewhere. (Well, I guess they are now, technically ...)

For most people, a browser is just a pipe. As long as it shows them what they want, they don't care about the browser itself, No reason - as long as it works - they'd even notice which one they were using. Given that the big 3 are all free, no reason they'd pay for it either. Seems like Opera has managed to stake out a couple of niches and in at least one case convince people they had something worth noticing. (The other niche? Their latest project is Opera Crypto. Too soon to tell where that will go.)

I don't see either as anything monumental, but neither of those is a niche I care about.

[Pathduck]

@dracho said in Perhaps Vivaldi Should Buy YouTube Advertisements (Sponsored Messages)?:

it pains me to watch a MoistCr1tikal video

I think it would pain me too...

[hlehyaric]

@luetage He didn't last long though.

[luetage]

@hlehyaric He couldn’t handle the intensity of the community.

[guigirl]

@luetage said in Perhaps Vivaldi Should Buy YouTube Advertisements (Sponsored Messages)?:

He couldn’t handle the

truth? You want the truth, you can't ...

[dracho]

@pesala Vivaldi wouldn't pay Google or YouTube. Vivaldi would pay content creators. The example I spoke of is in the video titled "I'm The Perfect Weapon" on the penguinz0 channel. Charlie takes a couple minutes to explain why Opera GX is the "best browser."

Opera GX contacted Charlie, like many businesses do, to include this sponsored message in his video.

Again, I do not know how much they paid Charlie. Maybe $1000? No idea. Even if it was $1000, in my estimation, that seems like a pretty good deal for Vivaldi, as they would have 360,000 people hearing about it who probably otherwise wouldn't.

How often do you hear people in passing praise Opera GX, Firefox, Brave, etc? Now, decrease this number exponentially because you are one of 'those' people - you know, the kind that frequents browser forums...

Word of mouth isn't enough.

[dracho]

@pesala I should also say that focusing all of their resources on a better product and wait for word-of-mouth advertising, as you suggest, is ludicrous. It just doesn't work that way. Successful companies advertise, especially in this day and age.

How do you expect Vivaldi to become so unique and valuable to gain more than 1% market share without advertising? Vivaldi has definitely innovated since it was created, but we're reaching a point of diminishing returns. Vivaldi is never going to grow arms and legs and do your housework for you, therefore the excitement in passing along word-of-mouth opinions will stay the same as it has been.

I love Vivaldi. That's why I am suggesting more people try it. And by "more people" I don't mean one or two who happen to peruse the comment section. I mean thousands of people hearing it from a trusted content creator.

Again, in one video, 360,000 people heard an advertisement for Opera GX.

[Ayespy]

@dracho Vivaldi gets a good deal of exposure in technical journals, tech blogs, trade shows, tech-oriented podcasts, etc. It also posts content on social media which gets reposted and amplified. Further, it partners with device (including automobile) makers to be the only or default browser on the platform, etc. It also sponsors a sports team and a couple of startup incubators.

All of these amount to "earned media," or favorable content and exposure that the company does not have to pay for. That leaves the entirety of the company budget available to be spent on supporting the team and the premises which make up the productive structure of the company. As more income is generated, more staff are hired and more user demands are met.

Vivaldi, from its inception, has been intended to be "a browser for our friends." It has not sought to be the Big browser, the Rich browser nor The Browser for the Masses - nor will it. The company's business plan reflects its goals and priorities. If those goals and priorities were different, the business plan would also be different.

[Geniusak]

@Ayespy In today's age of business models being reliant on massive userbases and endless growth, it's so nice to see vivaldi be able to just make little browser among friends, and be satisfied with that.