[yobbo]

> There is this beauty of economics – you don’t have to make anyone poorer in order for you to become richer.

Actually, economics doesn't create wealth. Technology and industry creates wealth.

In the case of facebook, you'd have to make the argument that advertising budgets is creating more "wealth" in the hands of facebook than anywhere else. Advertising spending budgets are, in fact, zero-sum. Which form of advertising creates more "economic wellfare" is probably a normative debate, and we'd need someone motivated enough to have it.

But in the end, facebook's revenue comes at the expense of other companies' revenue.

[temporalparts]

Advertising spend is not zero-sum. Budgets are determined by advertising efficiency; if a new platform comes along that significantly improves cost per conversion, then you'd allocate more money than before. The reason advertisers are flocking to Google and Facebook is because of their advertisement efficiency (through targeting), and this has lead to an increase in overall advertiser spending.