The Price of Free Google Report.
Proton analyzed over 54,000 demographic profiles using 2025 ad auction data to estimate what advertisers pay to reach different types of Americans. The range is much wider than you might expect.
The average American generates about $1,605 a year in advertising value. A 35- to 44-year-old man in Bozeman, MT, without children, using a desktop and making high-value corporate searches, generates an estimated $17,929.30. An 18- to 24-year-old father in Fort Smith, AR, using an Android phone and making low-value searches, generates $31.05.
That’s a 577x difference between two people using the same free service.
The desktop is worth more because of the assumption that you’re a corporate buyer at work.
The choice to force you into an app has nothing to do with this at all
Also higher value searches are probably done on desktop a bit more?
If desktop users are valued more, it's because advertisers pay more for them. If a store is willing to pay more to advertise to a desktop user, but also tries to prevent them from using the site, it sounds weird to me.
Yes they stated this.
Because the advertisers thing they’re corporate users at work
Corporate advertisers are more willing to pay to advertise to corporate buyers. Non-corporate, non-business personal users are not corporate buyers in this context so they benefit more from funneling them into an app for purposes unrelated to advertising to them.