AT THE bottom of many online articles, including those on reputable news sites, there is a grid with thumbnails that seemingly lead to other articles. It’s innocuously labelled “Around the web” or “You may also like”.

But what you really get is a mind-boggling mix of ads posing as trashy articles, otherwise known as “chumboxes” – the online equivalent of containers filled with chopped-up fish bones and gristle, used as bait for bigger fish.

This isn’t just an Internet oddity, but a billion-dollar industry that has survived for close to a decade. In 2021, there were even two chumbox unicorn listings on the Nasdaq: Outbrain at US$1.1 billion and Taboola at US$2.6 billion.