&gt; Here is one - the alternative to ads everyone proposes is people pay for their content directly. Except there are catastrophic barriers to entry for such a business model<p>Not really. Sure, that&#x27;s an alternate that people propose, but not one I think will ever take off. And honestly, I don&#x27;t care. I think the &quot;funded&quot; web has a lot of potential, but it has just ended up squandered.<p>&gt; ...but that model doesn&#x27;t align with western shareholder-value driven markets at all.<p>So? I don&#x27;t really care about that market. For a long time people made software without being paid. I write free (as in beer and speech) software in my spare time. It&#x27;s cheaper than ever to run your own server. I don&#x27;t view the &quot;western shareholder-value&quot; market as valuable to the internet as your making it out to be.