We discuss the transition of AI-native applications toward ad-supported monetization models. Among other things, we cover:

• Whether AI-native apps will follow the mobile gaming trajectory by adopting hybrid monetization models to reach massive global audiences
• How the high operational costs of AI inference necessitate a move toward ad-supported tiers to maintain sustainable profit margins
• Why the granular intent signals captured in LLM conversations offer a superior alternative to traditional search-based advertising targeting mechanisms
• What new native ad formats will emerge to integrate seamlessly into AI workflows without disrupting the core user experience
• When the venture capital funding environment will demand more disciplined monetization strategies from AI startups over pure user growth
• How established ad-tech infrastructure from the mobile gaming era can be adapted to serve the unique needs of AI developers

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

The Prosperous Society is a three-hour, four-part series by Eric Seufert of Mobile Dev Memo that explores the political economy of artificial intelligence, grounded in the liberal tradition of the Western canon.

Framed as an extended response to John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society, which serves as the intellectual foil for the series, The Prosperous Society makes the case that AI is not principally a story about intelligence, but about economics: it represents a progressive technological revolution that shifts the binding constraint on economic growth from production to distribution. In doing so, it redefines the role of digital advertising as the coordination infrastructure of an increasingly personalized economy.

Last summer, when I began outlining The Prosperous Society, I set out to write an economic defense of artificial intelligence to serve as ballast for more pessimistic narratives. It was originally intended to be a short book.

I pivoted to the podcast format when those narratives reached fever pitch earlier this year because I wanted to respond quickly and release new episodes on a regular cadence. But The Prosperous Society evolved into something broader: a defense of liberal political economy in the age of artificial intelligence.

Over the course of three hours, I develop that thesis through four linked but distinct arguments:

• Part 1: Why AI makes distribution more important than production.

• Part 2: Why autonomous commerce is a false ideal.

• Part 3: Why personalization changes the economics of the long tail—and of identity itself.

• Part 4: Where the moral boundary lies between AI that expands freedom and AI that robs us of it.

If the series succeeds, I hope it provides a rigorous intellectual case for why AI, if properly constrained and thoughtfully applied, can reaffirm the liberal tradition of Western political economy while helping to usher in one of the great periods of economic expansion in human history.

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Garrett Johnson and Shunto Kobayashi, professors at Boston University who have co-authored a paper titled "Can privacy technologies replace cookies? Ad revenue in a field experiment." The paper quantifies the impact of Google's Privacy Sandbox on publisher revenue, user experience, and market competition through a field experiment conducted in collaboration with Raptive, a digital advertising management platform.

Our conversation highlights the specific challenges faced by the digital advertising ecosystem as it moves away from traditional identifiers and toward a new, more restrictive privacy regime. Among other things, we discuss:

• How the loss of third-party cookies specifically affects regional markets with stricter privacy regulations like the European Union
• If the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies like the Privacy Sandbox could truly bridge the revenue gap created by the deprecation of cookies
• What role browser vendors should play in establishing technical guarantees that satisfy both regulators and advertising stakeholders
• Why the industry tends to respond to identity restrictions by developing more complex identifiers instead of contextual alternatives
• When the concentration of traffic toward larger platforms will reach a tipping point for small-scale content creators
• How the removal of personalization features on platforms like YouTube serves as a blueprint for future privacy-driven market shifts

We also cover another paper by Garrett Johnson, "COPPAcalypse? The Youtube Settlement's Impact on Kids Content."

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Olivia Kory, the CMO of Haus, to discuss the recent $1BN investment in AppsFlyer by Meta, Google, Unity, and Moloco, and the shifting landscape of mobile measurement it portends. We explore the strategic motivations behind major ad platforms banding together to ensure measurement neutrality and how the industry is moving toward more sophisticated incrementality models. Among other things, we discuss:

• Why a consortium of major ad platforms decided to invest in a major mobile measurement partner at this time
• How the tension between platform-owned measurement tools and independent third-party services will influence advertiser trust moving forward
• Whether the failure of Apple’s SKAdNetwork to provide actionable insights has forced the industry back toward traditional attribution
• If the entry of private equity into the measurement space changes the long-term incentives for data neutrality and transparency
• What the rise of connected television as a performance channel reveals about the limitations of current mobile measurement frameworks
• When advertisers should prioritize long-term incrementality testing over the immediate gratification of last-click attribution data in their dashboards
• Whether the consolidation of ad tech assets under single entities creates a conflict of interest that ultimately hurts performance

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Venkat Prabhu, Director of Product for Shop Campaigns at Shopify, to discuss the platform's evolution into a comprehensive marketing operating system for eCommerce merchants. We explore the major announcements from Shopify's Spring Editions, specifically focusing on how the platform leverages commerce data and AI to simplify advertising for businesses of all sizes. Among other things, we discuss:

• How AI-driven automation empowers small businesses to participate in the digital marketing ecosystem
• Whether centralized platforms like Shopify can solve the persistent problem of cross-channel attribution
• If risk-free advertising models will become the standard for merchants entering the digital economy
• Why the integration of commerce data into advertising algorithms creates a unique competitive moat
• What happens when a commerce platform evolves into a holistic marketing operating system
• How deep integration with AI agents like ChatGPT will redefine discovery for online shoppers

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Peter Stuart, the co-founder of Velora, an AI operating system for specialist publishers. Peter returns to the podcast to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in journalism and to explore how editorial teams are integrating these tools into their daily operations. Among other things, we cover:

• How AI tools like LLMs can effectively augment journalistic research and fact-checking processes without compromising editorial integrity
• If the increasing efficiency of AI content pipelines will ultimately diminish the perceived value of human-led investigative reporting
• Why some media organizations remain hesitant to integrate AI while others aggressively leverage it for content curation and distribution
• When the line between AI-assisted writing and pure machine generation becomes indistinguishable to the average consumer of digital news
• How AI platforms can help journalists reclaim time for high-value reporting by automating mundane administrative and formatting tasks

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Adam Epstein, the co-founder and CEO of Gigi, to talk about Amazon’s strategic advertising advantages. Among other things, we discuss:

• The value of Amazon’s deterministic identity spine, which spans ninety percent of US households
• Whether Amazon can successfully transition its e-commerce data dominance into non-endemic categories like automotive and pharmaceutical services
• The risks faced by independent demand side platforms like Trade Desk as tech giants internalize inventory
• What role agencies will play in a future where AI agents manage cross-channel programmatic media buying autonomously
• When shoppable TV transitions from a niche consumer behavior to a primary driver of performance marketing results
• How the integration of Amazon’s retail data with AI chatbots might permanently displace traditional search-based product discovery

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Danny Frankel, the founder of Punchup Live, a digital platform and ticketing ecosystem built for stand-up comedians. We explore how the economics of content distribution and audience building are being fundamentally rewritten. Danny provides a unique perspective on the shifting landscape of social media, the rise of clipping farms, and the digitization of live entertainment markets. Among other things, we discuss:

• How clipping farms and Discord communities are distorting organic distribution algorithms for independent creators across social media platforms
• Whether the extreme efficiency of AI-driven content recommendation engines is leading to user burnout and eventual platform rejection
• Why the traditional touring model is inverted for comedians compared to musicians and how that affects audience building strategies
• What the phenomenon of blue dot fever reveals about shifting consumer behavior and transparency in the secondary ticketing market
• If the current fragmentation of the live entertainment ecosystem prevents artists from accurately predicting and capturing true market demand
• How the lack of audience portability across major social platforms forces creators to adopt direct-to-fan communication tools like email
• When the innovator's dilemma will force legacy platforms to choose between advertiser needs and the long-term health of creators

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Prosperous Society is a podcast series by Mobile Dev Memo that articulates an AI Bull Thesis for the digital economy. It argues that the pervasive application of AI to the digital economy will be broadly economically expansionary, leading to increased individual prosperity, expanded consumer choice, and greater human agency.

In Episode 4, the conclusion to the series, I outline the AI-enabled flywheel to the Prosperous Society and make the case that it results in a more differentiated, more personalized, and economically expansive new digital economy:

• AI increases productive possibility, and
• Advertising increases matching precision, and
• Matching precision increases specificity, and
• Specificity increases expressive individuality, so
• Society becomes more differentiated, not less.

But I also consider the existence of an acceptable boundary for this personalization. At what point do siloed, wholly unique digital experiences become corrosive to social cohesion? And how should that boundary inform the investments that are currently being made into AI infrastructure, such that they are put to the best possible use?

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

The Mobile Dev Memo podcast is available on:

• Spotify
• YouTube
• Apple Podcasts

On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Julian Togelius, a professor of computer science at NYU and director of the NYU Game Innovation Lab. We delve into how games serve as the perfect sandbox for AI development, the potential for generative tools to revolutionize production workflows, and how the future of play might involve infinite, procedurally generated worlds that adapt to every player's unique style. Among other things, we discuss:

• How AI researchers leverage the inherent fun and learning mechanisms within video game environments
• Whether the financial markets function as a complex game requiring the same reinforcement learning strategies used in digital play
• If consumer backlash against AI-generated assets will ultimately give way to the promise of faster and more ambitious development cycles
• What possibilities exist for truly open-ended games that utilize real-time world generation to create infinite, personalized player journeys
• How the role of the game developer shifts toward system architecture and critical thinking as coding becomes increasingly automated
• When and if world models will transition from impressive tech demos to foundational tools for interactive entertainment

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠INCRMNTAL⁠⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on.
• Xsolla⁠. With the Xsolla Web Shop, you can create a direct storefront, cut fees down to as low as 5%, and keep players engaged with bundles, rewards, and analytics.
• ⁠Branch⁠. Branch is an AI-powered MMP, connecting every paid, owned, and organic touchpoint so growth teams can see exactly where to put their dollars to bring users in the door and keep them coming back

Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.