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It's an interesting thought that, if the users really got a value out of Facebook, they would be willing to pay for it. I think people do, but if Facebook asked
by guntars 9y ago
It's an interesting thought that, if the users really got a value out of Facebook, they would be willing to pay for it. I think people do, but if Facebook asked everyone to pay even just a penny, they would instantly lose hundreds of millions of users. There just isn't a way to charge users directly for occasionally useful products.
- imgabe 9y agoAlmost all of the services people actually use Facebook for were things that they paid for in the past. It's certainly harder now that these things are "free", but I think there would be a market for a Facebook clone that said "Hey, just give us $5 a month and we won't sell your data or bombard you with ads". Let's see, keeping up with your friend? That used to be the telephone, for which people paid by the minute - an hour long call with your friend or family in another state might run $5, every time you wanted to talk to them. Or you could mail a letter. Slower, but still costs money for paper, envelopes and a stamp. Wanted to share photos? First you had to buy a camera. Then you had to buy film. Then you had to pay to get the photos developed (extra for duplicates). These are clearly things that are (or at least were) worth money to people. But a stream of random snippets from people you haven't spoken to in 20 years, asinine clickbait, and political rhetoric? Yeah, nobody wants to pay for that.