[wilg]

Strange that you would say Pets.com didn't use ads given in your link there is a section about their famous sock puppet mascot with the following quote:

> Pets.com hired the San Francisco office of TBWA\Chiat\Day to design its advertising campaign.

Also here's a collection of Pets.com TV ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sICSyC9u5iI

And Webvan did ads too: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2001/03/05/da...

[benmller313]

I think you misunderstood, the point was that pets.com's revenue model wasn't based on free services supported by advertising sales.

[riffraff]

they advertised, sure, but were not "propped by ad revenue".

Advertising was a cost for them, like it is for Tesla, they weren't in the business of _selling_ ads, like Google or Facebook.