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for me, the main issue with ads as a business model: they make the product crappy

facebook, twitter, yelp, blogs/content - the more you monetize, the more annoyed your users are

there's an inherent tension between the success of the product and the success of the business, which is problematic especially as you scale

the only significant exception is google

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The success of advertising in your app depends on how valuable a service you provide. As value increases, so does the viability of an ad based revenue model.

agreed, but the more ads you cram into your app, the less valuable the service

this is true for every app except google - therefore, your consumer internet ad-supported business model probably has an inherent flaw

I agree. There's a very fine line there.

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