Freemium Facebook For An Ad-Free Experience?

No

I won’t pay $10 for an ad-free Facebook experience like Biz Stone suggests.

Anywhoo, now that I’m using it and thinking about it, I’ve got an idea for Facebook. They could offer Facebook Premium. For $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads.

Biz Stone

Let’s be realistic – this is not an original idea. In fact, I’ve seen this idea floated for years from different people.

The reality is that some would indeed pay for an ad-free experience.

Also, the reality is that I’d be surprised if 10%, or anywhere near that number, opted in to such a plan.

If a company is really forced to add an option that eliminates advertisements, because users are really that fed up with them, then there is a bigger problem that must be faced. How could Facebook possibly hope to float a freemium option when users can just use something like AdBlock? Why even take the risk when users can switch to other platforms that offer ads which don’t feel as intrusive?

I personally don’t have a problem with Twitter ads.

I wonder if ads are really that bad or if it’s the reputation that they’ve earned along the way not to mention the brand image of the platform serving them that is more at the bottom of the kettle here.

Also, how will this impact the mobile ad side that is more critical these days for companies? I doubt that the advertisers which Facebook relies on, would be too supportive of a freemium (Pro) model.

Would Facebook really risk the advertiser and user fall out by offering a freemium model? I doubt it, but crazier things have happened in the social world.

The idea though is a nice source of humor. Maybe it’s just a genius suggestion to drive users away from Facebook, in fact. Who knows?

If there’s a push for an ad-free experience on Facebook, then maybe a better solution would be to look at the core product and re-evaluate what went wrong.

The question, “How do we keep more than 90% of users happy?”, rather than 10% (gratuitous example) who *might* pay, would be a better question to address.

Introducing freemium at this stage of the game, would really be a nightmare for Facebook’s brand image. It would convey the message that Facebook doesn’t have its act together or understands the market – or worse, it’s own product. So here’s my free idea and suggestion:

Forget the ad-free vs ad supported question, Facebook. Keep solving the problem that your product is designed for. Better than $1B in monthly revenue is 1B users supporting you because you have the best answer. That revenue stream will be better.