Who should shape the product?

Most online media businesses describe their customers as two groups:

A. Users
B. Advertisers

Both matter. But only one group should shape the product, because the relationship between them is not symmetrical.

A simple test makes this clear. Imagine either group dropped by 90% for a month.

If users go elsewhere, advertisers will leave soon after, and they will have little reason to come back. If advertisers disappear, users may barely notice. In many cases, they may prefer it: fewer distractions, faster pages and less machinery between them and the thing they came to read.

This does not make advertisers irrelevant. It makes them dependent. Advertisers follow attention, and attention belongs to users.

So the product should be shaped around the audience. Please users first, and advertisers still have something to buy.