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Never really worked? How do you think Meta/Facebook and Google got so rich? The television and media companies before them? Subscriptions can work too but you need a product people want that no one else can offer. Apple and Disney have that, but I doubt Twitter does.

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I'm speaking specifically about social media; like the one Google shut down because it wasn't viable. Facebook/Meta still don't make money for most their clients they simply promise returns and marketing depts have to utilize them because everyone else is and it's mostly fueled by leverage.

In my experience, advertising isn't worth it if you aren't a large corp. with access to debt and require a presence and even then it's mostly a loss leader.

I often wonder how companies make so much money selling advertising. I don't think I respond to advertising, but hard to know for sure since I get exposed to it non-stop everywhere I look. I agree that smaller companies don't seem to get return on advertising spend, at least I've never seen it happen.

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