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I always assumed it was so they could stuff some more ads at the bottom. I'm sure someone here knows the real answer, though.

• cratermoon 5y ago
  Ads are part of it, certainly. It allows the page to initially load more quickly because the browser doesn't have to grind through all the ad and site effluvia before rendering. Lots of work can be deferred asynchronously while the user is reading the first part of the page. It provides a signal that the visitor actually stayed and read more than the first paragraph. Handy for tracking "engagement". It can reduce total load on the site and its services, by only making requests for all the artifacts if the user clicks the "read more". That can reduce bandwidth and serving costs. tl;dr optimization