The Price of Free Google Report.

Proton analyzed over 54,000 demographic profiles using 2025 ad auction data to estimate what advertisers pay to reach different types of Americans. The range is much wider than you might expect.

The average American generates about $1,605 a year in advertising value. A 35- to 44-year-old man in Bozeman, MT, without children, using a desktop and making high-value corporate searches, generates an estimated $17,929.30. An 18- to 24-year-old father in Fort Smith, AR, using an Android phone and making low-value searches, generates $31.05.

That’s a 577x difference between two people using the same free service.

    • belochka@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Compared to the rest of the world - yeah. Be that 30 years ago or now. Things that are normal for Americans are something impractically good for the rest of the world.

      I mean, there are median and average income maps and such on the web.

      But I admit that everything is different, say, in most countries you can do fine without a car. Of what I’ve read and heard about USA, a car seems more important than a place to bunk (I mean, the whole concept of someone with financial problems sleeping in their car seems wild from a country where a car is something less basic than a living place).

      • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        America is gold-plated and even then only for top 5%

        Wage slavery exists all over the globe, america included. Thinking Americans are “wealthy” while actual billionaires exist will ensure our globe never unites.

        The ruling class united long ago, that’s why they keep winning.

        • belochka@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          I think there’s a degree of moving goalposts here.

          A mid-XIX-century worker could die of hunger if they lost their job. There wouldn’t be any social services or boarding houses for poor to feed their children, and their wife - you know. OK, I mean, there were boarding houses, but that was even worse than growing up in a poor family.

          An early-XX-century worker was still in similar danger, but there were both organized labor and changing level of life. Working their way out of poverty being real and a lot more accessible press and education were some of the changes from the previous. And political rights too.

          A mid-XX-century worker could basically live normally through hard work. And one could say that both in Warsaw block and in the West social nets were in place. In the third world not yet. !@#, me and writing about hard work.

          “Wage slavery” of a person who’ll die of hunger and of a person who’ll feel bad from looking poor, but will have socialized options for food, board and even help with looking for a job, are two very different situations.

          So let’s please remember that we, Americans included, already sort of live in a socialist heaven compared to 100 years ago.

          I think humanity is improving.

          • CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world
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            53 minutes ago

            “Wage slavery” of a person who’ll die of hunger and of a person who’ll feel bad from looking poor, but will have socialized options for food, board and even help with looking for a job

            What country are you from? Clearly you aren’t familiar with Americans’ reality.

    • BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Yeah. Americans are very wealthy in general. And very trigger happy for spending with their credit cards