Every time I log into Facebook, I notice that more and more people have joined a rather verbosely titled group called “NO, I WILL NOT PAY $3.99 A MONTH TO USE FACE BOOK FROM JULY 9TH 2010!”
The precise amount begs the question: “Well, how much would you be prepared to pay?” If not $3.99 then how about $3.96 or possibly $3.80?
I joined the group today, for research purposes only, and discovered a can of very angry worms, venting their spleen about the “outrage’ of a possible, impending charge.
“Facebook may as well jerk off..I enjoy facebook alot and it is a pretty big part of my life. I refuse to pay. Why does everything have to come down to money with these people.”
Erm, could it perhaps be perhaps because they’re a business? Do people really believe there is some magnanimous Facebook Gandhi out there dedicated to fixing bugs, adding new applications and ensuring server up-time – all out of the goodness of his heart? Don’t be daft. Facebook might have started as cute little website for college students but now it’s a huge, web-dominating beast. With a zillion or so users* all panting for more, surely the folk at Facebook have a right to charge?
“No way!” shout the angry worms. “What about the advertising? Don’t you think he (stet) makes enough money from advertising?.”
Well, apparently not. According to this article, Facebook is “burning through millions of dollars a month with no magic levers to reverse the trend in the short term”.
Many of the anti-fee camp say that if a fee were to be charged, Facebook would have to be ‘ad-free’. Why so? We’re happy to watch ads at the cinema even though we’ve paid for a ticket, we buy magazines full of ads and pay to rent DVDS with ads at the start. Just because a form of media has ads doesn’t mean we don’t have to pay.
Others quite sensibly recommend that Facebook could offer a ‘basic version’ with a simple Wall, inbox, limited friends and no applications. Users could then upgrade (and pay) for more enhanced versions with all the bells and whistles. But still the worms cry: ‘No! Facebook has been free from the start; it’s not fair if they start charging now.” Oh, my naive FB fans – wake up and smell the evil stench of capitalism.
It is the oldest sales tactic in the book: give something away for nothing and then, when customers are addicted, start charging. Just think of all those lovely crack dealers out there, and Nestlé flogging all that fabulous baby formula to penniless African mothers. The world isn’t fair.
In the words of one angry member: ‘We should all just stop using facebook til they agree not to charge us.’ Yeah, like that will work. Just think of all those groups started to protest Facebook interface changes, angry that the site should dare change anything without consultation with its users. Effect = bugger all. Others ask: ‘Why would I pay for Facebook when I can use Bebo?’ Quick answer. Bebo sucks.
Of course, Facebook denies it. A spokesman for the company said: “We have no plans to charge users for Facebook’s basic services . Facebook is a free service for its 350 million users.” Take note of the words “basic services” and perhaps put a nice fat ‘yet’ after the word ‘plans’ and I think it’s probably true. Come on – they’d be fools not to.
We’ve just been lucky so far. Free news, free search, free Facebook. I’m frankly amazed that it’s lasted this long. Many newspapers have announced they’ll soon charge for access to their info; I think Google will be next. A monthly fee of $5.99 for 100 searches, more if you want to go advanced, perhaps a lower charge if you’re ‘feeling lucky’. Hmm…. maybe I’ll start a Facebook group protesting that.
Personally, I’d be happy to pay a few dollars a month to access Facebook. I like the site, enjoy keeping in touch with my mates overseas, boring people into a stupor with my inane status updates, and am delighted that Farmville was briefly able to bring some meaning to my post-baby life.
Whatever they charge, per day it’s likely to be cheaper than a telephone call, text message or the price of a stamp and a damned sight easier than actually having to meet people and talk face to face. The sociopath in me knows I’d pay ANYTHING not have to do that.
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A few other ‘I won’t pay’ user comments to finish off, not because they add anything to the argument, but because I never cease to be amazed by the poor grammar of Facebook users:
- ‘No way jose! i can buy eggs or milk with that wtf’
- ‘Unbeleiveabul man fff’
- ‘Thsi is ridiiculpus faceboom will lose basically EVERYONE!’
- ‘Hell no they like sto skeem money where ever they can we broke as it is now lol’
- ‘Why does people ruin a good thing with money?’
* Figures may not be entirely accurate.
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The issue is not with the amount that will be charged or the reason they need, or need not charge, the issue is with the fact that the internet, a haven for some that stems from the Berkley designed military intranet, is slowly being eaten away and restricted by the external ‘old school’ sovereignty systems that has controlled progress with fear as its backbone.
I could not give a flying frigate if they start charging for membership, my friends are spread all over the world, but I have their emails and so I will, probably like many of them not be paying, I am sure a few will pay and their membership will die off when they find that their friends have started their own website that they can drop into. (Purely hypothetical… like I said I have email).
Your views are from a particular perspective that is not shared the world over, for example I have a different perspective than most with regards to the China/Google issue going on at the moment… I can explain it with one word: Tibet.
What was Google thinking?
Or do we think that maybe they were trying to draw the world’s attention to the governmental restrictions of China so we would all do something?
This world is entered in all different manners and it should be no surprise that we all have different perspectives on things; the one thing that we can all hold onto is the ability to true to ones’ own point of view.
Comments via email
Trish:
# The applications aren’t created by Facebook.
# If you’re going to use a ‘free sample’ example, why not use Gillette, who gave away the razors but charged for the blades? The Nestlé example is political, the practice was criminal (because women weren’t ‘addicted’…their milk dried up and most had no money to buy more formula or clean water to add to it)…and Nestlé stopped that practice years ago after UNICEF got on their case.
# The fastest-growing demographic in Facebook users (in the USA) is women over 35. Facebook users are (supposedly) better educated than users of MySpace and whatever the other one is called, and have higher average incomes.
# Many newspapers and magazines are already charging for full content: The Financial Times and The Economist are just two examples.
# Farmville is now the most widely used app with almost 74 million users
Via Facebook, Stephen:
also if you pay, as a customer with a contract you get to complain when they screw things up or the site doesn’t work properly. Plenty of folk seem to have no problem paying for manhunt or gaydar and facebook is way more useful than those. As with everything in life, you get what you pay for.
Thanks for your feedback Hallam. In my opinion there have always been sites that you pay for and ones that you don’t. The issue now is that once free content is soon to be charged for.
It’s a bloody shame, but isn’t that just the way the world works?
Everyone can choose to pay or not pay, everyone can vent their spleen and protest, at least we still have that freedom.
There is an article on Ux Magazine (http://www.uxmag.com/strategy/less-is-better) where David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 Signals is interviewed.
“…we don’t identify ourselves too much with the whole notion of the Web world. We identify ourselves more with the notion of a small business operating under proven approaches—like the crazy idea of charging money for products, which seems like a lost art for a lot of Web startups out there.”
People will always be happy to get something for free. If a person sees real value in the product or service, then, usually, they will be willing to pay.
I am also a firm believer that people don’t appreciate something that is free as much as something they have paid for…
Perhaps in the future, Facebook will end up with only 100 million happy but paying customers. That just might be a good business model afterall.
Hey Justin Thanks for your feedback. Hopefully they’ll follow the model of something like LinkedIn. Basics for free, sexy stuff for a price. That might keep most people happy!
Ahh haha, gold. I was in stitches reading this article.
Thanks for posting your link on http://culturezine.exofire.net/?p=104
My theory is that these people (that create these groups) suck in people with the ‘scare technique’ and then say “hey, click on this ad for me”, and as many webmaster know, you get 1,000,000 people to click on an ad and that = free money.
Also I have seen a few “affiliate” links with comments underneath saying “I gave them my bank details and I got charged for things I didn’t order”, well I’m sorry you got scammed but I have no sympathy since the #1 rule for the world wide web is don’t hand over your bank details to dodgy websites.
Ok, I know I played on the scare technique also by posting and ‘official payment petition” but if you actually read the article I wrote, you will see that I blatantly tell everyone that these groups are nothing but a scam.
Hi Kav,
Thanks very for your feedback. Yep I agree it’s all a total scam, but sadly most people believe it. Fools!
On a different note apparently I just inherited $9million from John Paul Getty, which is ever so nice. His lawyer emailed me today.
I’m just going to email the nice man in the Ukraine my bank details and he’s going to transfer it tomorrow.
Gosh I’m excited, I’ll be able to pay for Facebook forever now!
We are advertized to Death, and Death will be Facebook, because there are plenty of Opportunistic entrepreneurs Just waiting for this chance. All empires fall due to greed. I Speak the truth
Great comment. ‘All empires fall due to greed’. I agreed it would be nice if Facebook was content to break even and offer a good value, ad free service. I guess I’m just jaded and have wearily accepted that advertising has wormed it’s way in to every aspect of my life. Still can’t bear it that I buy a magazine for $8 and half of it is bloody ads.
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Thanks!
Can i share this on facebook? Ha!
feel free!
My concern is less that if facebook starts to make people may to use it, but more if sites such as google or yahoo (search), or hotmail or google og yahoo (e-mail) start to charge for services. For many people, e-mail is one of the few ways that have to communicate with people in other countries. Sure there are IM services (yahoo, MSN, AOL, skype, and couple others) that are free, but what if they one day charge too? What do people do then, if their way to communicate with most people outside their city (including family) is those means that are now free, but one charge a fee, and they can’t afford them? Say ‘well sis, this is it, we can no longer talk, since all our means of communication (other then the telephone) now will cost money and we both can’t afford them?’ Rediculous.
Great observations, Kate. “Wake up and smell the evil stench of capitalism”! Smells like… victory! I, too, am amazed all this free stuff has lasted this long. I’m also amazed at the illiteracy of many FB comments. Some of the loudest (using all CAPS) complainers are probably the same ones willing to pay $9 (US) and up for a beer at a sporting event. Cheers!