The internet is changing: until now most people have assumed that content and services should be free; but the signs are that we’re going to have to get used to paying subscriptions for the good stuff.
Not all services are created equal: I’ve been turning down the opportunity for a YouTube subscription on a regular basis for some time, but I gladly accepted Elon Musk’s X paid verification as soon as it was offered (I was already verified before that), and I would receive favorably the idea of paying a subscription to access the service. The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post or The New York Times are newspapers that have been very successful at this game for some time now. The idea is to charge all users for access to the platform. As for TikTok and Meta, I think I can hold out for the time being.
TikTok is offering users a $4.99 monthly subscription for an advertising-free experience, while Meta, which already launched a copy of the payment for verification on Facebook and Instagram last March, is now considering charging its European users $14 per month in exchange for being able to use these same social networks without seeing ads whose personalization and lack of respect for privacy was generating all kinds of problems with regulators.
In a bid to cover their expensive computing costs, the new generative algorithms also charge for higher performance features. In short, the internet ain’t what it used to be: while in the early years most services were free of charge, even though accessing it cost money, most players felt they had to establish a presence or offer something very special before they could consider charging, but the online world increasingly resembles the wider economy, where nothing is free.
Throughout this transition, subscriptions have been a growing presence on our credit card statements: Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO and others, as well as services that we always assumed were free because we ourselves are the ones who, in many cases, create content on them, such as social networks. Yes, we create content, and in some cases they may offer us the possibility of monetizing it in turn — as with YouTube, Medium, Substack, X and many others — but in addition to maintaining the infrastructure, paying a subscription frees us from an advertising model that is increasingly threatened by the use of adblockers and by regulators who consider it unacceptable from a privacy point of view.
In the case of social networks, subscriptions also make it easier to monitor users and life harder for botnets, as well as punishing misbehavior: in fact, subscriptions should, if everything works as it should, result in better quality services. After all, the free era brought us a model, that of paying with our attention and being the product ourselves, the consequences of which many of us have long abhorred.
Some studies claim that the subscription economy will reach $1.5 trillion by 2025, and more and more services of all kinds are trying to see if they have what it takes to survive in it. Those who claim that “as long as there are free alternatives, I won’t pay for anything on the net” seem to be left with services of increasingly marginal quality.
Obviously, it’s not going to be easy: when you pay for something, you demand a certain level of quality and are less likely to put up with nonsense, as well as reflecting on the value that the service you are paying for really brings you. Not all content providers or social networks will pass that test. But in the end, what’s taking place behind the scenes is a convergence with the real economy: making things costs time, and time is money.
(En español, aquí)
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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