Both sides in this exchange miss the mark What really matters: where is the money coming from and how can those spenders reason about ROI? New monetization models are doomed to fail without good answers to those two questions. And to address the points in the screenshot: - Memes are a commodity that can help generate attention. - Ad revenue is sustainable insofar as companies can convert the spend (on attention) into some degree of value. They're both components of successful platforms today, but what matter most is the ability to convert dollars spent into value captured.