For big platforms, ads exist to push you into premium
Quote
Advertising is only useful to these sorts of companies as a way to drive you to pay them cash on a monthly basis for premium subscription.
Episode 267: Chocolove (episode page, opens in a new tab) 00:59:19 (play audio from this timestamp, opens in a new tab)
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Summary
Dave suspects YouTube makes far more from premium subscribers than from advertising. Annoying ads are the main driver for signing up, so for these companies advertising is mostly a lever to get you paying monthly. Spotify letting paying subscribers skip ads follows the same logic.