The tacit message from AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is: Online ads are a reality, and will become more of a reality.
As a small business owner and a management consultant, I appreciate hearing this: Percent of online advertising still lags percent of online consumption, and this spells billions of dollars for companies like AOL, that is, in drawing more advertisers to come on board the digital train. So we as consumers and users ought to expect more, certainly not less, ads in our day to day online. Personally I don't necessarily mind that per se, but I do hate ads that are excessive (e.g. NFL games) and recycled (e.g. NHL games).
The question about impact on margins from Betty Liu is a good one: The more online platforms like Snapchat monetize through advertising dollars, the more options there are for advertisers. Twitter seems well underway in this regard, and I can point to Tumblr (Yahoo!) and WhatsApp (Facebook) as facing the big monetizing challenge. But Armstrong doesn't sound worried, especially with AOL's premium content and presumably premium rates (read: higher margins) with advertisers.
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