Advertisers pay platform owners to have sex with user data. That does not sound nice, but it's an analogy that most people can understand. The advertisers are

Advertisers pay platform owners to have sex with user data. That does not sound nice, but it's an analogy that most people can understand. The advertisers are the Johns (paying customers). The platform owners are the pimps. The users are the whores. Once you understand that, things become crystal clear. The more whores a platform owner has, the more they can charge the Johns to fuck the data. Pimps fight over whores and try to keep them from leaving. They fight over territory too. What you want? White males between 24 and 28 in the 12345 zip code who like sports cars and are college graduates. We've got 18,000 of them. How much cash you got? It's big business. Smart money is on the G pimp. They own more street corners.