3 ms·

For free services, I'm the product, not the customer. I understood this and used Discord regardless, because at the time it was the easiest way to talk to certa

For free services, I'm the product, not the customer. I understood this and used Discord regardless, because at the time it was the easiest way to talk to certain communities (mostly gaming related). If I was using Nitro, I'd have to agree with you, but I had a clear stance not to give a dime to a company I do not support.

jacquesm 7y ago
> For free services, I'm the product, not the customer. That's been beaten to death by now. Let's start with that I don't agree with it. If the service is free the price is $0, that does not suddenly transform the person who the product is being delivered to into the product itself. It merely changes the revenue stream into another one that is invisible to the customer. The company then has many options in order to get paid, none of which involve selling the customer. They might sell data about the customer (illegal in many places if that data has been collected for different purposes), or they might attempt to upsell the customer on a different service. But in no way does the actual customer get sold. The whole thing smacks of defeatism: we don't pay so therefore we have no rights as customers so don't whine. But that simply isn't true, users are not cattle to be sold at auction and companies should not treat them as such. And users should not tell each other that they only got what they deserved.
- wowaname 7y ago
  Perhaps I shouldn't have used that phrase, but I felt it would resonate with people more immediately than any other choice of words. In any case, I don't pay for Discord so I am definitely not a customer, whether or not I or my data is a "product".
  - ncmncm 7y ago
    There is nothing wrong with the expression or the idea behind it. We all know what it means, and what you mean when you say it. We all (seem to) need the reminder. It would be nicer not to be the product, but the world isn't always nice. Sometimes it is.
JohnFen 7y ago
Most of these "free services" are very far from free. They cost (and sometimes cost a lot). It's just that what they charge isn't in the form of currency.
Hedja 7y ago
You are still supporting Discord by using it and Discord still needs non-paying members. Without those members, Discord won't be as popular and the paying members wouldn't stick around. By all means, you are still providing value to the service and they need you as much as their paying customers. However, a lot of companies lose sight of this logic once they go big.

jacquesm 7y ago

> For free services, I'm the product, not the customer. That's been beaten to death by now. Let's start with that I don't agree with it. If the service is free the price is $0, that does not suddenly transform the person who the product is being delivered to into the product itself. It merely changes the revenue stream into another one that is invisible to the customer. The company then has many options in order to get paid, none of which involve selling the customer. They might sell data about the customer (illegal in many places if that data has been collected for different purposes), or they might attempt to upsell the customer on a different service. But in no way does the actual customer get sold. The whole thing smacks of defeatism: we don't pay so therefore we have no rights as customers so don't whine. But that simply isn't true, users are not cattle to be sold at auction and companies should not treat them as such. And users should not tell each other that they only got what they deserved.

wowaname 7y ago
Perhaps I shouldn't have used that phrase, but I felt it would resonate with people more immediately than any other choice of words. In any case, I don't pay for Discord so I am definitely not a customer, whether or not I or my data is a "product".
- ncmncm 7y ago
  There is nothing wrong with the expression or the idea behind it. We all know what it means, and what you mean when you say it. We all (seem to) need the reminder. It would be nicer not to be the product, but the world isn't always nice. Sometimes it is.

JohnFen 7y ago

Most of these "free services" are very far from free. They cost (and sometimes cost a lot). It's just that what they charge isn't in the form of currency.

Hedja 7y ago

You are still supporting Discord by using it and Discord still needs non-paying members. Without those members, Discord won't be as popular and the paying members wouldn't stick around. By all means, you are still providing value to the service and they need you as much as their paying customers. However, a lot of companies lose sight of this logic once they go big.