zlacker

Simple answer: The sum of all online marketing dollars is more than the sum of any amount of money people would pay for online content.

That alone means direct payment will never replace ads.

Most people are not reading The Financial Times or Bloomberg, they are reading rags like The Sun and Facebook gossip. I would love for that content to go away, but really, ad supported models work great for that demographic.

>>throwa+(OP)
Also both FT and Bloomberg are still filled up chalked full of trackers despite asking for money.

>>throwa+(OP)
You're right, but there is a solution: make online marketing worthless. Install an ad blocker.

>>coldpi+gb
I think you miss my point. Even if online advertising (as well as marketing, but that's a different concept) was completely worthless, the number of paid dollars would not go up, and the "total GDP" of the internet would go down.

If that's a desired future we should be honest about it, but it's a future without as many independent journalists who can't afford a team to sell their content, for example.

>>coldpi+gb
What is already happening is that ads get embedded in the content.

Paid content, product placement, YouTubers pitching Audible book related to video.