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Comment by jkeuhlen | Hacker News Reader

It's crazy to me how much of large business revenue comes from ads. Just under one third of their revenue is from advertising!

Is this a recent shift, or one that I'm just now noticing? Other large tech companies have had substantial increases in ad revenue as well: notably amazon and uber. Is advertising shifting away from Google, or is this just a normal part of large businesses (like paying for placement in retail stores)?

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Marketplaces are very keenly positioned for advertising as there is deep buyer intent. Amazon[0] looks to have a pretty sizable ad business. I have anecdotally observed that this is a recent trend related to the downturn. Of course, ads have always been very prevalent but as companies saw contraction they scrambled to plug revenue with ads. Netflix being an example that recanted its long held "no ads" policy. Apple's advertising business has grown substantially as well. For marketplaces, ads are a logical (if annoying) way to make money and that trend is unlikely to reverse.

[0]https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/amazon-has-a-31-billion-a-ye...

There's always been tons of money in marketing and advertising. Top brand companies have huge marketing budgets. Think coca cola, all super bowl ads etc.

it's just you had to settle for inferior means of attribution. it got better with tech via e-commerce and tracking. then it got worse with tech via bots, abuse, arms race, etc.

instacart can reach customers at the point of sale and track conversions in a first class manner. so it's a no-brainer for brands to pay for performance.

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