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ads really aren’t all that lucrative, though, they’re just simple. I worked for a company that was trying to figure out an alternative to ad revenue (we failed) and our people did some research and the average internet user ends up being shown (if I remember correctly) like $60/month of ads, total.

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That’s not surprising and is also so depressing. Imagine what the Internet would be like if there were zero ads and zero of the dark patterns that they essentially force every web site operator to engage in. And all for sixty measly bucks a month that we’d spend in microtransactions or subscriptions or whatever. :(

It’s an average, you can’t just charge everyone in the world and have an ad-free worldwide internet. About 2 billion of internet users are probably worth 0.60$ pm while 200m are worth 600$ of ads pm.

Maybe lucrative isn’t the right word but it’s more profitable than the alternative. Call it simple but there’s only so many ways to monetize people that feel entitled to digital works and refuse to open their wallet.

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