It’s less “reasoning” and more “market forces”. This is not intended as an endorsement of the absurd invisible hand of the market. In fact, quite the opposite:

It’s less “reasoning” and more “market forces”. This is not intended as an endorsement of the absurd invisible hand of the market. In fact, quite the opposite: any successful firm is expected to leave the “lifestyle business” stage ASAP and grow large returns for investors. It’s just more noticeable in this market (Display Ads) because it’s a terrible, terrible market; Google was definitely going to be found guilty for using its monopoly position in this space to drive up prices for everyone (rip American antitrust…), and even without that, it’s nowhere near as effective as search ads or old-school institutionally-targeted display ads (eg large newspapers, network TV). This, combined with the ever-growing pressures mentioned above and a healthy dollop of conglomeratization, gives us the mad race to the bottom that we’re currently living in. Google thinks they’ll save the industry with some new, slightly less invasive cookies, but I’m dubious. I would personally recommend everyone get comfortable paying directly for services you need, especially journalism.