Non-linear growth of value in platform business

The value of aggregation in ad business (and probably in most other verticals, too) is that 1 impression would have zero value, i.e., no advertiser wants to pay. 10 impressions also have zero value, so do 100 impressions. But when we get to hundreds of thousands to millions, all of a sudden the value spikes from zero to a non-trivial amount. …so, aggregators can buy a lot of small players for nickels, and put them together to reach a scale that goes from zero to non-trivial value. (Another way to frame this is that the value does not grow linearily with the number of impressions.) #platforms #business #aggregation #economics