The user always loses because the user is not the paying customer. Advertisers, surveillance agencies, and propagandists are the paying customers. Businesses serve the paying customer, not the “user” who in this model is the product.
This is not much better than old media really, which was always mostly ad supported. Media has always been a deflationary race to the bottom. When one player offers something cheap or free everyone else must follow suit and the economic model collapses. The cheapest crap and/or content with ulterior motives funded by someone else wins.
Advertisers aren't winning either. They're paying more and more for ads with fewer avenues for unpaid traffic.
You could maybe say that they're getting more measurable results than back in the day of TV and press dominance but having seen it from the inside, I doubt most are sophisticated enough to make use of that.
I don’t think the metrics or analytics are really giving better results. Mainly because platform access has become a product, that is defined by the seller.
You could very easily measure the effects of a 90’ies styled super soaker TV adds in sales. You can’t as easily measure the success of the Facebook advertisement for your board game kickstarter campaign.
This is not much better than old media really, which was always mostly ad supported. Media has always been a deflationary race to the bottom. When one player offers something cheap or free everyone else must follow suit and the economic model collapses. The cheapest crap and/or content with ulterior motives funded by someone else wins.