Not true. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter were all successful products before they added personalised algorithmic feeds. Facebook just showed you everything by your friends. Twitter showed your follows (like bsky) and YouTube showed your channels.

The personalised algorithmic junk came later. It was never required for the websites to be wildly popular.

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hdgvhicv 30 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

But popular does not mean profitable.

You would go on Facebook for 5 minutes and catch up with your friends. Great.

That’s not much time to shovel adverts. Better to get you engaged with ragebait or cute kittens or whatever keeps you on the site for an hour or 5.

	▲	josephg 10 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Alright. So? If facebook can’t pull a profit without being a blight on society, they don’t deserve to be in business.

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netdevphoenix 29 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Successful and profitable are not the same thing.