They are explicitly purchasable. What do you think advertising on the App store is? What do you think Google paying $20 billion to be the default search engine is?
The App store isn't an intellectual treadmill the way Youtube, for example, is. How much time have you actually spent browsing your platform's App store? Compare that to the time people spend hooked on Youtube, Tiktok, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Apple isn't an ad company in the same way these other companies are, you're kidding yourself if you think they're the same.
Apple's revenue in 2023 was 383 billion dollars. Ad revenue was, from what I can tell... 9 billion. Let's add the 20 from Google on top of that, so 29 billion is 7% of their revenue for 2023.
Compare that to Meta. 134 billion in 2023. Ad revenue? 131 billion.
Apologies, I was meaning that as "even if we grant that they are not purchasable." That is, I wasn't wanting to argue the point of if you can directly purchase it, as that doesn't seem important for the point?
You're right it isn't necessary to the point and no need to apologize. I just don't want to give apologists for this terrible behavior a rhetorical out.
