Want an ad-free Facebook? It would cost you less than three hundred a month

In connection with Facebook, the most recent talk is about the scandal associated with Cambridge Analytica and the misuse of user data. The topic of ads has also come up for a shake-up many times in recent days, especially in the context of their targeting given the information that Facebook knows about users. Subsequently, a rather hot debate started about the company's overall business model and so on... In response to this, the American website Techcrunch tried to calculate how much a regular Facebook user would have to pay to not see ads at all. As it turned out, it would be less than three hundred a month.

Even Zuckerberg himself did not rule out the possibility of a subscription that would cancel the display of ads to paying users. However, he did not mention any more specific information. Therefore, the editors of the aforementioned website decided to try to figure out the amount of this potential fee themselves. They were able to find that Facebook earns roughly $7 per month from users in North America, based on display ad fees.

A fee of $7 per month would not be too high and most people could probably afford it. In practice, however, the monthly fee for Facebook without ads would be almost double the amount, mainly because this premium access would be paid for in particular by the more active users, who are targeted by as many ads as possible. In the end, Facebook would lose a significant amount of money from lost advertising, so the potential fee would be higher.

It is not yet clear whether such a thing is planned at all. Given the announcements of the last few days and given how huge a user base Facebook has, it's likely that we'll see some sort of "premium" version of Facebook in the near future. Would you be willing to pay for an ad-free Facebook, or do you not mind targeted advertising?

Source: 9to5mac

Discussion of the article

[DusanK]

If there is someone who is willing to pay for Facebook, then I have no illusions about the intelligence of the current population.

[FMX]

I believe that the idea is not bad, but in my layman's opinion it is utopian and does not solve the core of the problem. None of us can see into their calculations, so we can only guess whether the fees for fcb without advertising correspond to the lost profit for displaying targeted advertising. In any case, we should not forget that the vast majority of Facebook's income is based on the trade in user data. I understand that it's a hot topic right now and especially after the massage by the US Congress, Facebook needs to show an effort. The questions are then: What is the real motivation for this solution? Which company will voluntarily cut a branch under itself that forms the main source of income?