CLOUDFLARE'S 2025 ANNUAL FOUNDERS' LETTER

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

Cloudflare launched in 2010 when less than 20% of the Internet was encrypted - today, well over 95% is encrypted, thanks in part to its efforts. The basic business model of the Internet for the past 15 years has been the same: create compelling content, find a way to be discovered, then generate value from the resulting traffic. There's always been a reward system that transferred value from consumers to creators. Ads were previously the only micropayment system that worked at scale to encourage an open Internet while also compensating content creators for their work, but change is being driven by AI. This article looks at how Cloudflare plans to navigate this change and what the new Internet business model will look like.