Paid Facebook

[mik3cap]

If Facebook ever did go the paid route, I would ditch it instantly. It's not worth it to me, I already pay for this journal and other avenues of expression... what does this say about the "value" of my social network? I think what it tells me is that the network is at any given time just a commodity - one that I can rebuild and reform anywhere. It's great when I have it up and running somewhere, and there's a new and/or interesting application I can use with it, but ultimately all that matters is that I have my network and nobody can ever take it away from me. My network is internal to me at all times.

Going to bed now. Still buzzed from pork overload.

Comments

[antryg-windrose.livejournal.com]

Playing devils advocate here, but.... a few posts ago you said you prefer FB to LJ. So in that case wouldn't it make more sense to drop LJ and pay for FB.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

I prefer whichever place has a bigger network and more activity. Currently, that's definitely Facebook - if it goes paid, I'm sure that will change.

[narnarthinks.livejournal.com]

what if they went back to myspace

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Nobody's ever going back to myspace; the people still there are either too set in their ways to leave or care about promoting a band. That's what myspace is now, it's basically just the Internet version of American Idol for bands, except people vote with their pocketbooks instead of with text messages. Rupert Murdoch is apparently too dumb to realize he can create a whole new American Idol kind of thing for bands online using myspace as a vehicle; he doesn't want the long tail that myspace could provide in that regard (i.e. an online "show" for ever single genre of music where bands in that style compete against one another for the hearts of the audience).

[narnarthinks.livejournal.com]

I think facebook needs freemium, and here's why. Too much clutter. A great model would be a cap on updates, pay for more. I think 3/day free update is a good number. Everyone is on facebook, and the majority of my friends don't use it daily. Everything they do on facebook would still be free. For heavy users, they're fanatical enough that they'd be willing to pay a modest microcharge for excessive updates. I love this model because it encourages quality control. Noise is the problem; this helps solve it, while simultaneously providing a business model too.

I wish to see the same model on Twitter.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Facebook is really just junk. There's nothing truly social about its social networking, it's only compelling to be on there because "everyone else is doing it". People only pay for stuff if there's actually stuff to pay for (some piece of software that actually does something in their lives) - I'm sure that almost no one gives two craps about any of the "applications" that Facebook redirects people to (not enough to pay for them), and "virtual gifts" are idiotic. People also aren't going to pay anything for status updates for the same reason; they're not important enough, and they don't really do anything in a person's life.

[narnarthinks.livejournal.com]

I know you feel that way, but I don't think everyone does. Case in point, a friend of mine was telling me that paying to throw little gifts at their friends is a healty business model for the dominant social network in Japan (not facebook).

I think facebook can charge after an allotted free updates if the charge is very small. A nickel seems like a good price. That adds up to a healthy business model. For my amount of usage, that would amount to a few bucks a month -- I think that's what livejournal charges for a premium account, and I noticed you mentioning you had paid for one of those.

Also, your network is very old :)
They don't use it.

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

My network is the one that has money. :)

Also, the Japanese are crazy and very different from the U.S. culturally. If you wanted to talk about international models, that's a whole other ballgame...