In the same way a protection racket provides substantial value to them as well. But only if the platforms mess with their rankings on organic listings and ratin

In the same way a protection racket provides substantial value to them as well. But only if the platforms mess with their rankings on organic listings and ratings depending on how they pay for ads. Yelp likes to do that, for instance. Alternatives to ads include: Referrals / word of mouth Organic rankings In a way, ads are similar to speculators pumping a token they think will eventually justify the hype by recouping the speculative spend. There are diminishing returns the bigger the ad spend gets. The only difference is that there is no secondary market to keep reselling ads and scalping them higher — or is there? But there is certainly the element of a large supply of greater fools to try out ad spend on various speculative ventures.