---
id: "prereq-two-sided-markets"
type: "prereq"
source_timestamps: ["§ Advertising revenue"]
tags: ["economics", "platform-theory"]
related: ["concept-two-sided-market-breakdown", "concept-zero-click-commerce"]
reason: "Required to understand the structural financial collapse platforms face when ads are bypassed."
sources: ["attention"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-attention"
originDay: 4
articleStem: "hbr-foci-69-ai-threatening-platforms"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/how-ai-is-threatening-platforms-revenue-streams"
sourceTitle: "How AI Is Threatening Platforms’ Revenue Streams"
---
# Two-Sided Market Economics

**Prerequisite knowledge.** An understanding of how **two-sided markets** function — where a platform subsidizes one side (free users) by charging the other (advertisers) — is necessary to grasp why AI agents breaking the advertiser-to-user link causes the *entire* platform economic model to collapse.

**Why it matters:** Required to understand the structural financial collapse described in [[concept-two-sided-market-breakdown]] once [[concept-zero-click-commerce]] removes the human eyeballs advertisers pay for.

**Enrichment pointer:** The foundational literature is Rochet & Tirole on two-sided markets, and Evans & Hagiu on multi-sided platforms.


## Related across articles
- [[concept-retail-media-network]]
- [[prereq-avod-svod-mechanics]]