4 ms·

Why can't I just pay for FB a monthly fee and as such they have no need to make money by selling my data or spamming me with crappy ads?

6ak74rfy 9y ago
A usual CPC (cost per click) that an advertiser is willing to pay is somewhere between 50 to 150 cents. Let's say it is 100, and you clicked on 10 ads in a month. So, Facebook earned $10 off you. Now, you should be willing to pay more than that for Facebook to prefer the model you are suggesting. My math above is highly simplistic. For e.g., you'd say you aggressively use an ad blocker and never click on ads. Fair enough, but what about non - tech people unlike us? For e.g., when my dad starting using Facebook at an age of 50+ couple of years, he just tried an unknown plumber through a Facebook ad. Moreover, you'd be willing to pay a monthly subscription, but would all of your friends? So, what I am getting at is that at Facebook scale they'll earn more though ads than through a subscription model.
- mrweasel 9y ago
  The value you represent to Facebook is also dependent on your location. People in the US are worth the most, around $60 per year: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/how-much-are-you-worth-to-facebook https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/how-much-... For heavy Facebook users $60 isn't much, but for everyone else it seems a little much.
  - mch82 9y ago
    If they really focused on delivering quality tools for organizing groups I'd pay that. $60 is a bargain compared to MeetUp.com admin fees.
- mch82 9y ago
  I'm always surprised by how little services charge to remove advertising. YouTube will do it for $9.99/month.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    Only in the US, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Korea though.
- johnchristopher 9y ago
  Not so fast: > https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/heres-how-much-youre-worth-to-facebook?utm_term=.vxRoQXqM5#.hkY3l1ZvK https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/heres-how-much-youre... > Here's how much Facebook makes per person in each region, extrapolated annually based on the network's third-quarter numbers: > Worldwide: $16.04 > US $62.60 > Europe: $18.88 > Asia-Pacific: $7.56 > Rest of World: $4.84 Another metric: > The social network giant, Facebook has a market cap of $227 billion and 1.4 billion users—which makes you worth a whooping $158. https://arkenea.com/blog/big-tech-companies-user-worth/ https://arkenea.com/blog/big-tech-companies-user-worth/ So for a max. of 10 bucks per month we could get an ad-free, privacy oriented Facebook. With dev. money going to enhance the experience not maximizing revenues of the ad industry.
  - dhimes 9y ago
    And if they didn't have to support and innovate the tracking stuff think how much simpler the company could be.
- einr 9y ago
  Who clicks 10 ads a month? I don't think I've clicked 10 ads in total since getting on the web for the first time in 1997...
icebraining 9y ago
My uninformed guesses: 1) Hard to price discriminate. Some people are worth almost nothing to FB, others are worth a lot. The price would either have to be absurdly high (e.g. $500+/y) or they might leave a lot on the table from that very profitable minority. 2) PR hit. People more easily accept that a frivolous luxury is only available to the wealthy, whereas even many people who use FB see privacy as more of a basic need. See: response to "price gougers" selling stuff like ice or water at a premium in disaster areas. 3) Hard to cleaning delineate. It's a social graph, your data is useful to generate data on your friends. Could they use it in that case or not? If they do, will that expose them to a lawsuit?
IshKebab 9y ago
This isn't about Facebook selling data. Why does everyone think it is?

6ak74rfy 9y ago

A usual CPC (cost per click) that an advertiser is willing to pay is somewhere between 50 to 150 cents. Let's say it is 100, and you clicked on 10 ads in a month. So, Facebook earned $10 off you. Now, you should be willing to pay more than that for Facebook to prefer the model you are suggesting. My math above is highly simplistic. For e.g., you'd say you aggressively use an ad blocker and never click on ads. Fair enough, but what about non - tech people unlike us? For e.g., when my dad starting using Facebook at an age of 50+ couple of years, he just tried an unknown plumber through a Facebook ad. Moreover, you'd be willing to pay a monthly subscription, but would all of your friends? So, what I am getting at is that at Facebook scale they'll earn more though ads than through a subscription model.

mrweasel 9y ago
The value you represent to Facebook is also dependent on your location. People in the US are worth the most, around $60 per year: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/how-much-are-you-worth-to-facebook https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/how-much-... For heavy Facebook users $60 isn't much, but for everyone else it seems a little much.
- mch82 9y ago
  If they really focused on delivering quality tools for organizing groups I'd pay that. $60 is a bargain compared to MeetUp.com admin fees.
mch82 9y ago
I'm always surprised by how little services charge to remove advertising. YouTube will do it for $9.99/month.
- jhasse 9y ago
  Only in the US, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Korea though.
johnchristopher 9y ago
Not so fast: > https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/heres-how-much-youre-worth-to-facebook?utm_term=.vxRoQXqM5#.hkY3l1ZvK https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/heres-how-much-youre... > Here's how much Facebook makes per person in each region, extrapolated annually based on the network's third-quarter numbers: > Worldwide: $16.04 > US $62.60 > Europe: $18.88 > Asia-Pacific: $7.56 > Rest of World: $4.84 Another metric: > The social network giant, Facebook has a market cap of $227 billion and 1.4 billion users—which makes you worth a whooping $158. https://arkenea.com/blog/big-tech-companies-user-worth/ https://arkenea.com/blog/big-tech-companies-user-worth/ So for a max. of 10 bucks per month we could get an ad-free, privacy oriented Facebook. With dev. money going to enhance the experience not maximizing revenues of the ad industry.
- dhimes 9y ago
  And if they didn't have to support and innovate the tracking stuff think how much simpler the company could be.
einr 9y ago
Who clicks 10 ads a month? I don't think I've clicked 10 ads in total since getting on the web for the first time in 1997...

icebraining 9y ago

My uninformed guesses: 1) Hard to price discriminate. Some people are worth almost nothing to FB, others are worth a lot. The price would either have to be absurdly high (e.g. $500+/y) or they might leave a lot on the table from that very profitable minority. 2) PR hit. People more easily accept that a frivolous luxury is only available to the wealthy, whereas even many people who use FB see privacy as more of a basic need. See: response to "price gougers" selling stuff like ice or water at a premium in disaster areas. 3) Hard to cleaning delineate. It's a social graph, your data is useful to generate data on your friends. Could they use it in that case or not? If they do, will that expose them to a lawsuit?

IshKebab 9y ago

This isn't about Facebook selling data. Why does everyone think it is?