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Rightly or wrongly, people (in general) have been conditioned to believe that digital information is free and thus will not actively pay for it. There are some

Rightly or wrongly, people (in general) have been conditioned to believe that digital information is free and thus will not actively pay for it. There are some notable subscription based consumer services (mostly entertainment based) that have convinced people to semi-actively pay for content but they are (in general) the exceptions. Even then, many (most) subscription services can't resist leaving money on the floor and will also ultimately run ads in addition to the subscription.

astennumero 2y ago
How would have things been different if people never had this notion of free digital stuff? I can't help but think that the tech giants would have still found a way to mess that up.
- yen223 2y ago
  I don't actually think it will change all that much. Ad-supported media existed long before the Internet became mainstream. In the good old days when we paid for newspapers and newspaper deliveries, newspapers made money off of selling ad space and classified ads. The cost of buying that newspaper barely covered the cost of the paper used to print the newspaper. The only real difference nowadays is the fact that we can offer content for free at all, because the distribution costs are close to $0.
fuzzfactor 2y ago
>people (in general) have been conditioned to believe that digital information is free and thus will not actively pay for it. I think this dates back to when the internet was better to begin with, and people first had to be conditioned to pay monthly to an ISP and that was enough. Everything else on the internet was supposed to be there for no additional payments. With that foundation it was plain to see this was a medium where ads were not necessary, there were so few of them it was inconsequential by comparison, things worked great with faster page loads even on dial-up.
- musicale 2y ago
  If I'm paying $100 a month already for internet services, the problem (if there is one) is one of distribution, not of payment.

astennumero 2y ago

How would have things been different if people never had this notion of free digital stuff? I can't help but think that the tech giants would have still found a way to mess that up.

yen223 2y ago
I don't actually think it will change all that much. Ad-supported media existed long before the Internet became mainstream. In the good old days when we paid for newspapers and newspaper deliveries, newspapers made money off of selling ad space and classified ads. The cost of buying that newspaper barely covered the cost of the paper used to print the newspaper. The only real difference nowadays is the fact that we can offer content for free at all, because the distribution costs are close to $0.

fuzzfactor 2y ago

>people (in general) have been conditioned to believe that digital information is free and thus will not actively pay for it. I think this dates back to when the internet was better to begin with, and people first had to be conditioned to pay monthly to an ISP and that was enough. Everything else on the internet was supposed to be there for no additional payments. With that foundation it was plain to see this was a medium where ads were not necessary, there were so few of them it was inconsequential by comparison, things worked great with faster page loads even on dial-up.

musicale 2y ago
If I'm paying $100 a month already for internet services, the problem (if there is one) is one of distribution, not of payment.