Speaking as someone from the developing world - ads have been excellent way for 1st-world eyeballs to subsidize access to information for the rest of the world

Speaking as someone from the developing world - ads have been excellent way for 1st-world eyeballs to subsidize access to information for the rest of the world - which is a net-positive from my selfish POV. Money from ads allows people who live on less than a dollar a day to have access to the same content as someone in a sea-side villa. Mostly. Paywalls, subscriptions and micropayment are regressive, unless they are indexed by cost of living.