> then there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay. And therefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising-supported model is the only rational model that can support building this service to reach people.
Hmm, but ultimately the money still comes from the target audience anyway, right? The advertiser only pays to reach a given audience if that audience is going to buy enough product to pay back the cost of advertising. Maybe you could make the argument that the really poor Facebook users are essentially drafting off of imperfectly targeted advertising?
I think the real reason for the advertising model is that Facebook is more valuable the more people use it. So it started charging money, maybe only 1/4rd of the users actually pay, the other very casual users just use the fee as an excuse to finally stop using Facebook. But now with such an exodus, the paying people don't want to pay anymore, and then you have a death spiral.
Hmm, but ultimately the money still comes from the target audience anyway, right? The advertiser only pays to reach a given audience if that audience is going to buy enough product to pay back the cost of advertising. Maybe you could make the argument that the really poor Facebook users are essentially drafting off of imperfectly targeted advertising?
I think the real reason for the advertising model is that Facebook is more valuable the more people use it. So it started charging money, maybe only 1/4rd of the users actually pay, the other very casual users just use the fee as an excuse to finally stop using Facebook. But now with such an exodus, the paying people don't want to pay anymore, and then you have a death spiral.