The Economics Behind Engagement Optimisation
Launch library · evergreen read
Platforms are generally built around business models that depend on sustained attention, since more time spent on a platform usually translates into more opportunities to show advertising or otherwise generate revenue from that attention over the course of a session. That incentive rarely gets stated openly, yet it quietly shapes nearly every design decision made along the way.
This underlying economic incentive shapes almost every design decision discussed elsewhere, since a feed optimised to maximise engagement is, at its core, a feed optimised to serve that broader business model, regardless of whatever specific content happens to achieve that goal. Recognising this underlying model reframes many features that otherwise seem to exist purely for a viewer's convenience.
Understanding this economic foundation helps explain design choices that might otherwise seem puzzling, since decisions that appear purely about user experience often trace back to this same underlying goal of keeping people engaged for as long as reasonably possible. Very little about a modern feed exists purely by accident once this incentive is actually taken into account.