A few days ago, I posted &quot;Unicorns aren&#x27;t ad-supported&quot; on HN.[1] There, I pointed out that, of a list of the top 50 &quot;unicorns&quot;, non-public startups with &gt; $1bn valuations, only three (Snapchat, Pintrest, and Vice) are ad-supported.  This dot-com boom isn&#x27;t driven by ads. It&#x27;s driven by companies that provide a product or service for which their customers pay them.  The companies that make their money from ads are from the <i>previous</i> dot-com boom.<p>Ad-blocking and tracker-blocking thus won&#x27;t hurt the growth companies in Silicon Valley. YC could get behind ad-blocking without reducing the value of their portfolio. The concept that &quot;the user is the product, not the customer&quot; is now outdated. There are still companies which rely on it.  They are vulnerable.  Google still hasn&#x27;t come up with a major revenue-generating product other than ads.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10372789" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=10372789</a>