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Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone To Facebook: Start a Premium Subscription Service

Posted by samzenpus on from the bad-ideas dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Twitter co-founder Biz Stone today decided to offer some business advice for Facebook: launch a premium subscription service. For $10 a month, Stone figures the company could get rid of ads on its site for those willing to pay to go 'premium.' He says in part: ' Anywhoo, now that I’m using it and thinking about it, I’ve got an idea for Facebook. They could offer Facebook Premium. For $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads. Maybe some special features too. If 10% percent of Facebook signed up, that’s $1B a month in revenue. Not too shabby. It’s a different type of company, but by way of validation, have a look at Pandora’s 1Q14 financial results. Of all Pandora’s revenue generators, the highest growth year-over-year by far (114% growth rate) is in subscriptions—people paying a monthly fee for an ad-free experience....."

2 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Facebook isn't that good and people know it by dingen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anywhoo, now that I’m using it and thinking about it, I’ve got an idea for Facebook. They could offer Facebook Premium. For $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads. Maybe some special features too. If 10% percent of Facebook signed up, that’s $1B a month in revenue. Not too shabby.

    The problem is highlighted in bold. People who love Facebook and are willing to pay $10 a month isn't 10% of Facebook's user base, it probably isn't even 1%. I think hardly anyone really "loves Facebook" at all actually, the only reason people stick around is because that's where their friends are.

    Facebook really needs to improve their platform *a lot* if they want to charge people money for it, because in it's current state, it isn't worth a dime.

    --
    Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
  2. the only reason I would pay.. by houbou · · Score: 3, Insightful

    for Facebook is IF not only would the experience be AD free, but I would have 100% control and ownership of the material that I posted. If I decide to delete/remove something, it would be 100% gone, not archived anywhere. If I want to backup my posts, my entire account, I would be able to do so.