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Someone has to pay for your service. This can either be your users or a 3rd party. We know the overall acceptance of paying for online services is fairly low. E
by this_user 9y ago
Someone has to pay for your service. This can either be your users or a 3rd party. We know the overall acceptance of paying for online services is fairly low. Even high quality news outlets have problems monetising their content. In this case you're also competing with "free" services like FB. Unless you can offer something that is enough of an incentive for people to pay, this is not a battle you can win. What's more, social networks live and die by the network effect. People will be even less likely to pay for your service if there is no one already on it they know. In the end, you are choking off your growth through the higher barrier of entry before you can even get to the phase of a positive feedback loop in user numbers.
This only leaves the 3rd party option. But someone like that will always want something in return, and the only thing that you have to offer is access to your users and their data.
- Spooky23 9y agoI don't think that's true. If you were constrained in how you use user data, you could make money in other, more difficult ways. Monetize photo services, music, sell access to the audience for applications or monetize the marketplace. Pillaging users is easy. But if regulators prevented it, Facebook is still a viable business -- maybe even a better one.