Facebook Tests the Waters With Paid Perks 204
CNET reports that Facebook has experimented lately with a small group of users by offering people the chance to promote their own account status messages the old-fashioned way: by paying for them. The author of the linked article asks whether it's inevitable that "Facebook will have to start dinging users in earnest," post-IPO. Facebook still says "It's free and always will be," but that doesn't rule out paying for additional features — that's certainly a model that many game makers had adopted.
For the share holders (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:1, Insightful)
So first Facebook's algorithm hides my posts from my friends for reasons known only to Facebook.
You're doing it wrong.
Now Facebook is testing the option so I can pay so that my posts they hid will actually show to my friends.
No, it allows you to pay for premium space - you know, like advertisers do - most people won't want to do that though.
In a way, I really hope Facebook goes through with this, maybe it'll be the straw that finally breaks the camels back and we can get a new social network that actually cares about its users.
You really think everyone is just going to transition to some other social network because of this? Only a vocal minority really gives 2 shits about all of the 'evil' of corporations like Facebook and Google and Microsoft and Apple, to the degree that they would be willing to change products, it's pretty naive to think otherwise.
Your amazin Facebook post is lost in the noise... (Score:5, Insightful)
One can understand Facebook's problem. Too many people use it. Too many posts are being created. Too many people miss most of what's there. Yes, it's just like Twitter.
If Facebook's layout did not stink this would not be an issue.
If it looked like Google Reader with my hundreds of friends on the left with a little number of how many items I have not viewed that are new, it would be easy to keep up with everything.
Instead I get this seemingly random arrangement of things on the main page and it takes me two clicks to even bring up a complete friend list which is arranged in no useful order.
I cannot wait for the day when we look back on Facebook like we did on proprietary email protocols and instant messaging protocols and have a beautiful selection of clients.
I am still looking forward to the day when all those services are easily host on servers that are not harvesting the average user's data...
Reminds me of eBay.... (Score:4, Insightful)
eBay makes money in the form of micro amounts.
In your item to be sold...
Want a larger title?
Multiple colors
Pictures
highlighted in the listing...
All of these cost a few cents extra to get more "eyeballs" to see your listing and then eventually to click on it and hopefully to buy the item(s) you're selling.
Always wondered why I couldn't format my FB posts with bold/italics or justifications (left/right/center). Now, I can see them saying, "You want bold... that will be $.05."
Of course it would be really slick to have a setting similar to what email clients have which is to display all email messages, regardless of formatting as "plain text". Thereby getting rid of all the formatting people have paid for and display it in plain text (like it is now).
Re:Hew! (Score:5, Insightful)
MyCleanPC is a scam. Please dont feed the trolls.
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:2, Insightful)
Why wait?
I ditched Facebook early this year, and havent looked back.
Reading posts like this reinforces my decision.
Re:Facebook should pay popular users. (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternatively, it'd cause more Click-the-cow-type games to crop up, because stupid sells.
Sad but true.
I would pay to opt out of being a product (Score:4, Insightful)
I seriously pay to have true privacy controls, where I could opt out of having my data / posts sold to whomever paid for it, or let me see who's been bidding (and let me choose who gets it).
I'd also pay to get access to all the data they have on me (what I have deleted, who's viewed my page, etc). This, of course, would not be good for their business model.
But they would probably take my money and sell my data anyway :)
Re:For the share holders (Score:4, Insightful)
There was a time when they were more focused on building their user base than (immediate) profits. They knew the network would only gain financial value when it had enough users to monetize, which it now does.
Re:For the share holders (Score:5, Insightful)
So... in other words... they prepared the pasture... lured in the sheeples... and now it is time for the harvest?
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:2, Insightful)
"cares about it's users"? Are you kidding me? Do you know how much it costs to run facebook? For bandwidth, servers, electricity, etc for 900 million users?
$600 million for equipment in 2011, and another $500 million this year. (source [datacenterknowledge.com])
That's just for equipment. Plus you have to pay for developers, server admins, office space, etc, etc, etc.
Anyone who thinks they are going to start a service to replace facebook without making money their #1 priority is an idiot who will fail the moment they have to open a hundred million $ data center.
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:5, Insightful)
You could have sent an email to a bunch of people. I hear that works.
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:4, Insightful)
So first Facebook's algorithm hides my posts from my friends for reasons known only to Facebook.
Now Facebook is testing the option so I can pay so that my posts they hid will actually show to my friends.
In a way, I really hope Facebook goes through with this, maybe it'll be the straw that finally breaks the camels back and we can get a new social network that actually cares about its users.
While I agree that the new features are silly and a thinly veiled attempt at capitalizing upon the public, shall we all remember that when we post things on Facebook, we are voluntarily using a free service on the Internet? At any point we are all free to delete our account, ignore the parts we don't like, or otherwise not participate in it as a social networking site.
Shit, we may even decide to go outside, into the Big Blue Room and talk to actual people, face to face!
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry you had to go through that. Honestly. But you know what? If I went into the hospital for emergency surgery anyone I wanted to know would know. I don't have a facebook account. And I'd never create one and expect it to act as a tool to disseminate critical information. It was important to you that people knew but you relied on a mechanism that is geared towards monetizing you and if it works for you all the better. If it doesn't, oh well. Not like you can sue them over it.
I'm not trying to be harsh, and I do feel for you. Next time, use the phone (you had time to post to facebook, all it takes is one phone call to spread the word....)
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:3, Insightful)
Just imagine how bad it must have been before there was a Facebook, and there was no way to let another person know about such important news and emergencies!
Re:Freemium at its best (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember AOL, Myspace, ICQ, MSN etc, they all had a huge userbase, were seen as invincible and they all more or less crashed when they tried to cash in in a market where they were no longer the leaders in innovation.
The mob is fickle, brother. Ten years ago Myspace didn't even exist yet, and it hasn't been relevant in years now. C'est la vie...
Anyone that expects different with Facebook is delusional. I would honestly not be surprised if a full third of the user accounts on Facebook are either abandoned completely or aren't accessed but a few times a month at the most. I don't know what's going to be the dominant social network in 5 years...but I seriously doubt it's going to be Facebook.