Tracey Lien.
Wozniak said. ‘‘The profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back.’’
A recent survey conducted by Recode and market research firm Toluna found that 23 per cent of respondents said they’d be willing to pay to use a version of Facebook that had no ads.
Of those respondents, 41.6 per cent said they’d be willing to pay between US$1 to US$5 per month. The remainder said they would be willing to pay more.
Subscription companies were once an anomaly on the internet, where the prevailing wisdom was that information trended toward free. But in recent years, successful online companies that built their empires on free content supported by advertising have also been exploring pay models.
The general strategy has been to charge for special features, so users feel like they’re getting something extra for their money.
YouTube is available for free, but those who pay can lose the ads and get exclusive content. Spotify lets people listen to music for free, but the paid version cuts out ads and give them more control over how they listen to music. LinkedIn, the social network for job-seekers, lets paying users see who has viewed their profile.
Though consumers have been willing to subscribe to some online services, social media experts say when it comes to firms like Facebook – which has been free since its launch and whose ads can easily be scrolled past – a pay model is unlikely to catch on.
That’s because the core function of Facebook – connecting people – is something that can be done elsewhere without having to pay. The social network could tack on extra features, but social media experts are unsure what features would compel a user to fork over cash.
And researchers remain unconvinced that many people would opt to pay simply for their privacy – even as they pay lip service to it.
‘‘The whole fantasy that people care about privacy or they’re desperate to get out of adsupported networks is ridiculous,’’ said Clay Shirky, a researcher on the social and economic effects of internet technologies at New York University.
Simply put, the majority of social media users either don’t really understand – or don’t care – how their information is collected and used, said Ryan Detert, chief executive of Influential, a Los Angeles start-up that uses artificial intelligence to match advertisers with social media influencers.
‘‘The biggest growing segment for these social media platforms is the youth, and they grew up with this, so they know all their data is being collected, and they know they don’t have privacy,’’ said Detert. ‘‘I’m on the older side of Millennial and even I don’t particularly care whether someone has my data. If you’re Gen-Z, you really don’t care.’’
There can often be a disconnect between the behaviours consumers aspire toward – say, taking extra steps to protect their privacy – and what they actually do.
‘‘I’ve been covering consumer attitudes and behaviours for a long time, and I don’t see consumers changing their behaviour very often,’’ said Fatemeh Khatibloo, an analyst at Forrester Research.
‘‘They might take a few steps here and there, they might go through and change some