Google, Facebook, and Reddit are shaped by the constraints of the media they inhabit and have created. In particular, the massive reliance on adtech is a direct

Google, Facebook, and Reddit are shaped by the constraints of the media they inhabit and have created. In particular, the massive reliance on adtech is a direct result on the web not having a functional monetization mechanism. In the beginning, e-commerce was frighteningly difficult if not outright impossible and people would pay heaps for ad space. It was far less difficult to just slap ads on things; and there were several waves of failed attempts at making a microtransaction/subscription model work for web content. Furthermore, even if a "paying for shit" business model (e.g. microtransactions or subscriptions) had taken off, that wouldn't have solved the problem. Adtech exists because advertising fraud is a rampant problem that constantly reduces the value of the advertising over time. The ad network needs something to keep you from making fake clicks to get paid; and all that invasive tracking also makes the advertising far more effective and lucrative. Likewise, paid content has similar problems with piracy. It's not enough to just ask people to buy something - you also need DRM, watermarking, and content ID to keep people from giving it to someone else without you making your buck. The problem with the web isn't the amount of control it affords developers, it's that getting people to create interesting content for your medium requires business models that only work if the users of your medium are in some way restricted or tracked. This is not unique to the web; had the web not gained a scripting mechanism or a way to track state (i.e. cookies), then it would have remained niche like Gopher and instead some other protocol or medium would have taken it's place. Likewise, inventing a new medium with more restrictions will probably not take off; after all, people already have the web.