Without Ads you'd have 10 entrepreneurs. With it you have 10000
Before the internet was fuelled by ads there were some ad-free directories and human-curated lists of websites that people seemed to like quite a lot. That could have been a viable alternative.
I'm not suggesting the proliferation of ads has been bad for the web. Far from it. It means anyone with an ad budget can compete, which is a valid point. The problem that brings is that so much of the success of a product comes from the marketing budget now. In a market where the worst product can win if it has a bigger ad spend, it's hard to believe ads are a net benefit.
Before the internet was fuelled by ads there were some ad-free directories and human-curated lists of websites that people seemed to like quite a lot. That could have been a viable alternative.
I'm not suggesting the proliferation of ads has been bad for the web. Far from it. It means anyone with an ad budget can compete, which is a valid point. The problem that brings is that so much of the success of a product comes from the marketing budget now. In a market where the worst product can win if it has a bigger ad spend, it's hard to believe ads are a net benefit.