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According to Yahoo Finance, Facebook made $13.5 B between 13 March 2014 and 31 March 2015. In December 2014, they reported 1.19 B monthly active users. That w

by dhimes 11y ago

According to Yahoo Finance, Facebook made $13.5 B between 13 March 2014 and 31 March 2015. In December 2014, they reported 1.19 B monthly active users. That works out to about $0.95/user/month. I would love to have the option pay $25/month[1] to be able to get out of the tracking crap. I don't even particularly mind banner ads that appear because I am viewing a page. I just don't want to be tracked. If I go to Dockside Tropical Cafe's fb page, sure show me an ad for some trop-rock artist or Caribbean vacation. But don't do it when saying happy birthday to my friends or on a site about car repair. I don't always want one to know about the other. [1] Edit: I meant $25/year- I'm not sure I'd pay $25/month for fb. Maybe $5/month though.

oliwarner 11y ago
But you don't just contribute to your own "user value", you interact with friends and they with you and together, they know where you all are, what you like doing, and what you like to buy. And it's actually worse than you make out. It's not just Facebook pages. They could track you on third party sites that have "share on Facebook" code on them (lots). They have real ability to track almost everything you read online, if you have an active Facebook session (or had one on your IP recently). They could then sell this data bank out to third parties for A/B switching based on real demographic data. We assume Google knows everything, but Facebook probably knows more.
- dhimes 11y ago
  I understand that they rely on the network effect, but my point is that if they went to a pay version (note that I edited what I said I would be willing to pay- the first was an accident) their revenue would increase. If a significant number of us did so then perhaps they could even reduce costs by not having to meddle as much with advertisers. $25/year more than doubles their revenue from me. And they can still show me some ads. The tracking is ridiculously comprehensive as you point out- yet they don't get the value that they could get from direct payment. So I'm suggesting that they do us all a favor and let us opt-out of privacy invasion with cash.

by dhimes 11y ago

oliwarner 11y ago

But you don't just contribute to your own "user value", you interact with friends and they with you and together, they know where you all are, what you like doing, and what you like to buy. And it's actually worse than you make out. It's not just Facebook pages. They could track you on third party sites that have "share on Facebook" code on them (lots). They have real ability to track almost everything you read online, if you have an active Facebook session (or had one on your IP recently). They could then sell this data bank out to third parties for A/B switching based on real demographic data. We assume Google knows everything, but Facebook probably knows more.

dhimes 11y ago
I understand that they rely on the network effect, but my point is that if they went to a pay version (note that I edited what I said I would be willing to pay- the first was an accident) their revenue would increase. If a significant number of us did so then perhaps they could even reduce costs by not having to meddle as much with advertisers. $25/year more than doubles their revenue from me. And they can still show me some ads. The tracking is ridiculously comprehensive as you point out- yet they don't get the value that they could get from direct payment. So I'm suggesting that they do us all a favor and let us opt-out of privacy invasion with cash.