The underlying point is game theoretical: ads are driven to these methods because within their niches, they're zero sum games (and negative sum for society at l

The underlying point is game theoretical: ads are driven to these methods because within their niches, they're zero sum games (and negative sum for society at large due to externalities). > Honestly it's hard to see how we get to this level of speed and content online without it having been funded by advertising. I don't understand what this means. Most content online that isn't user generated (forums, blogs, wikipedia, YT, short form video etc) is junk. Most of it is made for free. The distribution has costs - but it's extremely unclear the costs couldn't be solved in different ways. Serving text is ultra cheap. Torrents distribute way more video than industry is happy with. We didn't need to take this path.