Limits - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 103

enough. We focus on users but ignore stakeholders. We put experience before understanding.
It's time to realize that daylighting isn't moonlighting. It's the most vital work that we do.
In 2005, only two years after its founding, Myspace was purchased by News Corporation for
$580 million. For the next few years, it was the most popular social network in the world. But its
new owners insisted on rapid monetization. Executives, under pressure to hit quarterly revenue
targets, flooded the site with garish display ads. The strategy worked for a while until the whole
system collapsed. Revenue rose to $605 million in 2008 but fell to $47 million by 2011 when
Myspace was sold for $35 million. This was a costly lesson in the link between advertising and
user experience. Today, Facebook limits ads to 5% of its newsfeed. Like Amazon, Google, and
Twitter, they sacrifice quarterly results for user experience and brand loyalty. Most firms lack
this discipline.
Figure 5-3. Advertising and the user experience.
Must they all learn the hard way? Or can we use stories and sketches to reveal what short-ter-
mism does to long-term health? To shift a mindset is not easy, but it's not impossible. Once in a
while, we have an epiphany, when new information triggers a leap of understanding. But
mostly, change is slow. It takes creativity, courage, and countless tiny steps.