Definition of "profitable"

The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about "creating compelling content", or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing" […] and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27

I wylbe ferme and ſtabyllAnd to yow ſeruyceabyllAnd also prophytabyllYf ye be agreabyllMy propyr BeſſeTo turne a gayne to me

c. 1521, John Skelton, Speke Parott

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.

1953, Richmond Lattimore, Aeschylus, “Prometheus Bound”, in Greek Tragedies