Protect and prohibit. Why Google banned cryptocurrency advertising
Just like Facebook, Google, another renowned Internet giant, waived its magic wand at cryptocurrencies and a whole number of other financial solutions. Abracadabra… and starting from June 2018 already, all the advertisements related to binary options, cryptocurrencies, monetary exchanges, and contracts for difference (CFD) will be banned. Why did Google put a vicious spell on crypto advertising and what does the community think of this kind of tricks?
Armed with the notice
“Unregulated or speculative products” — that’s how Google labeled the list of prohibited categories. I made the direct inquiry to the Google Russia press office and asked them about the reasons for such changes in the AdWords advertising policy regarding financial products. I got the following comment: “This is explained by the fact, that we’ve been seeing a lot of new complex financial products emerging on the market. We find it essential to introduce additional measures to protect our users”.
Just like Facebook a bit earlier, Google is trying to protect both users and itself in this situation. Advertising restrictions work as a magic shield protecting corporations from regulators, it’s a sort of a preventive measure. In case of any scam or law violations, advertising websites can be punished as well.
For the moment, with no comprehensible regulatory framework, blockchain projects and ICOs, as well as platforms like Google and Facebook, have to maneuver. Actually, regulators have provided us with neither legislation, nor clear bans. Neither internationally, nor in Russia. There is no legal ground to ban financial tools. That’s why Internet giants have to find their path in the dark and protect both themselves and users.
It’s worth mentioning that the ban concerns not only cryptocurrency projects. We’ve already seen the ban on forex-brokers, pharmaceutical companies, gambling. Google advertisers look suspiciously at different rehabilitation centers curing various types of addictions.
On the other hand, not all the giants choose a cautious defense strategy. For instance, a major market player Mail.Ru Group has just introduced the possibility to pay for advertising in bitcoins or bitcoin cash (BCH). The option concerns all the projects of the Group and its partners. Website owners will also get their income in cryptocurrency. Amazon has announced that Bitcoin might be added to their payment network. Allegedly, the company is planning to create its own cryptocurrency and is going to join the blockchain market.
There is a will, there is a way
As for the community, it’s not a disaster if crypto advertisers loose Google from their tool-set. The regulatory ambiguity mentioned above becomes more like advantageous dusk. Standard foreign websites impose restrictions on certain kinds of advertising and everyone starts searching for new possibilities. And they find them, for sure. They start using CPA-aggregators, create their own media and channels, advertise on special crypto media platforms, make their own video channels, etc. By the way, according to the Google official comment quoted bove, advertising restrictions will also influence YouTube to a certain extent.
Since Facebook banned ICO advertising, marketologists have only lost one tool. Projects are still issuing ICOs, they raise money and a difficult life of marketologists gets even harder. Google ban on crypto advertising is of the same kind; it’s not fatal, and it won’t exterminate advertising in the industry. On the contrary, it can become rather a useful scam-filter for rapidly and intensively developing crypto economy.
