Two-Sided Markets
Search engines, which finance free search results by selling advertising, use what economists call a two-sided market (sometimes called a double-sided market). All media—including television, radio, magazines, and newspapers—would be far more expensive if it weren't for advertising revenues. Other business sectors apply similar techniques: Your credit card appears to be free (or almost free) when you use it for purchases, but the merchant accepting the card pays a fee to the company that issued it and you, of course, pay interest if you carry a balance.
In every case—search engine, newspaper, or credit card—the company offers its products or services to two markets: reader and advertiser or customer and merchant. The more subscriptions ...
Get The Google Way now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
