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Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone To Facebook: Start a Premium Subscription Service
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....."
If you were so addicted to Facebook that the ads really annoyed you, wouldn't you have Facebook enhancing crap installed, like Adblock+? Social Fixer is pretty great, but I'm not quite addicted enough to use it.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Think how valuable that list would be. The world's uberchumps.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
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.
Honestly, I'd rather just pay. Why do I want to see ads at all? I don't. I want to watch a show or talk with friends. If I wanted to shop, I'd go shop, using sites and resources built for that kind of thing. Make it easy for people to pay and make it affordable. And, naturally, make it worth paying for. I pay 10 bucks a month for Spotify because I think it's a good service. I'd pay it even if there weren't a free version. Same with Netflix. Make it compelling, and people will pay. Not everyone. There will always be cheapskates and freeloaders, but best not to worry about them. And for God's sake, don't try to make people pay after you've gotten them hooked. No better way to piss of a userbase than that.
you don't notice the feed spam ads? the ones where FB makes it look like your friend posted about a company when they really just "liked" their page 7 or 10 months ago?
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I thought Facebook was already premium. In order to skip the friend request CAPTCHA, post videos, add a page, or even to log in to your account after a while, you have to verify your account, which requires having a unique mobile phone number. A house phone won't work if you share this phone with another Facebook user in your household, and a lot of house phone carriers can't receive texts anyway.
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.
The answer is already known: None!
When I want information about a product or products, I will be looking for it and do comparison.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
People want to pay 10 bucks a month for Facebook? Funny, I'm trying to get off it...
If he had said $10 per year, that might be a little more reasonable, but I think the people that use and love Facebook so much that they'd consider paying $120/year for the service are probably not the same people that have $120 to spare.
problem is, these ads hitting the filter DO make subconcious predispositions towards certain products, they seem more familiar even when you don't actually know anything more about them than you do competing products.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Did he really say "anywhoo"? Just ignore anything after that, it won't be worth hearing.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
I don't think Zuck will change it like this? Facebook is free and always will.* *Conditions Apply
10$ a month to have total anonymity to the government. pay 10$ a month and the government cant access your facebook... EVERYONE would buy that
facebook is already ad-free. just download the free app called adblocker and put it to good use
For $3.99 a month, Facebook would allow you to see who is looking at your profile. You could also control how you display when looking at other people's profiles (name, area, or anon). LinkedIn is doing this and I think it's a great service.
I'd pay for a subscription if it gave me access to, and the ability to delete, any information they have that references me.
... to eliminate annoying ads from their Facebook pages, news feeds. etc. and replace them with "special features" that are highly likely to be even more annoying than the ads you used to get?
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M