Part of the challenge is getting people to see the true cost of the free services they consume. The internet today defaults to the "all you can eat buffet" post

Part of the challenge is getting people to see the true cost of the free services they consume. The internet today defaults to the "all you can eat buffet" post-scarcity world. The kagi team are transparent about what it actually costs them (in cash) for searches you make. If they go down the advertising route, they'll just become another Google, as the incentives are not aligned. First you'll get more ads onto the page to crowd out organic content. Then you'll subtly adjust what users search for, or what you return, to ensure you optimise for your highest paying ads. Then you'll hyper localise to make even more from sponsored listings etc. If we want an internet where users aren't the product, there needs to be more transparency about what "free" things are actually costing in compute resource and similar. And ultimately a user has to either bring in more money than they cost (not ideal in developing countries where ad impressions and clicks can be worth a lot less), pay for what they use with a margin on top, or the company has to go onto the VC treadmill of promising greater future returns from eyeballs (back to advertising and data brokering again....) Therefore while it is expensive compared with free, they're also being transparent about their real costs, and what the services that are free elsewhere (with monetisation) are actually having to make from selling ads to you to break even.