Comments on: NO I WON’T PAY $3.99 TO USE FACEBOOK BUT I MIGHT PAY $3.95

By: Mitch Devine

Mitch Devine — Fri, 21 May 2010 06:45:56 +0000

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!

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 12 May 2010 21:26:35 +0000

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.

By: katetoon

katetoon — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:35:30 +0000

feel free!

By: Joness

Joness — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 07:24:49 +0000

Can i share this on facebook? Ha!

By: How to create Link Bait | Kate Toon

How to create Link Bait | Kate Toon — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:17:52 +0000

[...] - No I won’t pay $3.99 to use Facebook, but I might pay $3.95 [...]

By: Facebook Doppelganger

Facebook Doppelganger — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:02:36 +0000

Thanks!

By: Hetat

Hetat — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:33:11 +0000

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By: katetoon

katetoon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:48:09 +0000

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.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:45:28 +0000

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

By: katetoon

katetoon — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:57:57 +0000

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!

By: Kav

Kav — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:53:02 +0000

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.

By: katetoon

katetoon — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:45:13 +0000

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!

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:20:23 +0000

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.

By: katetoon

katetoon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:17:46 +0000

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.

By: katetoon

katetoon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:14:31 +0000

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.

By: katetoon

katetoon — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:11:27 +0000

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

By: Hallam

Hallam — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:59:43 +0000

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.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:13:22 +0000

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