Round Table: Would you pay for an ad-free Facebook with a few additional features?

The day power-Facebook users have been dreading since time immemorial is one when the social networking service will start charging for some of its features. The thought that had always been a kind of an open secret is now being talked about pretty candidly and the person to coin the idea of a paid Facebook is none other than Twitter’s co-founder.

Twitter honcho Biz Stone suggested in a blog post on Saturday that Facebook should consider launching a Facebook Premium for a nominal fee of $10 a month. People who “love Facebook (and can afford it),” should be offered a no-ads Facebook. The social networking website could even throw in a few additional features to lure in the crowds. “If 10 percent of Facebook signed up, that’s $1B a month in revenue. Not too shabby,” says Stone.

Even though this will hypothetically rake in the moolah for the social networking giant, the question now is, would you pay $10 a month to access a premium version of Facebook that shows you no ads and throws in a few extra features?

Would you pay  for an ad-free Facebook experience? (Background Image Credit: Getty Images)

Nishtha Kanal

While I would personally not shell out an equivalent of 600 bucks a month simply to use Facebook in an uncluttered manner, I don’t see the harm in the company rolling out this service for people who would like to use it.

Advertisements have been the bane of users’ existence on Facebook ever since they were rolled out. They’re intrusive and they’re after your personal data. I can probably put up with Facebook’s ever-changing design, but the way the advertisements are taking up more and more space on the website is a tad too irritating.

Facebook has been trying to spread itself out to users in developing nations with its mobile website. Access charges to this website are very minimal for even feature phone users in India. Players like Airtel offer Facebook for free to its subscribers. Why should Facebook then not cater to the other end of the spectrum? From a business point of view, it makes a lot of sense for Facebook. Parting with $10 a month could be completely fine for users who can afford it, if it helps them use Facebook in a much smoother fashion. If Facebook adds a no-ad feature to it as well, nothing like it.

Hatim Kantawalla

If the paid ad-free model is all they can come up with, then I think they are probably scraping the bottom of the ideas pit.

However, I do think there is an enormous room for additional paid features within FB. I wouldn't mind paying to store, access and share high resolution images and videos. Or security features that allowed me to protect my images/videos from being tagged or shared outside of a particular group/location. If these were easy-to-setup apps from within the Facebook App Center, then I’d happily pay for them as add-ons, knowing fully well that these are in fact Facebook built apps/features.

I think many dedicated users, many who even make a living off Facebook, would definitely consider paying for such features.

Priyanka Tilve

I have been using Facebook since 2009, but frankly speaking, my usage has reduced significantly over the years. And this has nothing to do with the ads. What I find annoying are the constant changes that Facebook keeps introducing, which has you clamouring to get your privacy settings right. There isn’t really a straightforward way about figuring out the new settings and, for that matter, even the changes made.

Facebook is making it increasingly difficult to reach those settings that allow you to control every aspect of your account. As to whether I would pay for an ad-free Facebook experience, the answer is NO.  The ads are annoying, but it’s like a necessary evil to keep the service free. And if you wish, then there is a way you can get rid of them. You can effectively use browser extensions like AdBlock Plus or Ad Munchers to block out these ads.

About paying for certain features, I frankly can’t think of Facebook coming up with anything that will want me to pay. But yes, come to think of it, I will be willing to pay if they just let my privacy settings remain unchanged.      

What if  Facebook gave you extra features for the sum?

Shunal Doke

I personally wouldn't really pay for using any social networking service. The only reason I use Facebook is because it’s needed to sync my contacts. The problem with the whole hypothetical business model is that there just isn’t much of a value to the service that’s being (hypothetically) provided. Facebook is essentially an address book on the Internet—hardly worth paying for, at least for me.

Besides, it doesn’t help the company that there already is a way to avoid ads on Facebook; using a simple browser extension like AdBlock will give me all the ad-free experiences one would want. In the end, it simply comes down to how value is perceived. If someone is on Facebook every waking moment of their life, but hates all the (blatant) advertising, this could be an invaluable feature, assuming the price is nominal.

I, however, must be in the minority here, since companies as big as Facebook or Twitter wouldn’t be stupid enough to consider something like this if there wasn’t a demand for it. I welcome the option, since, in principle, having options is always a good thing.

Mithun Kidambi

The current information age has brought a certain idea to the fore—that a user’s data is of a certain definite value and can therefore be used as a currency. This is exactly what Google, Facebook and practically every other business dealing with information does today. Thus, the idea that Facebook is currently "free" is a misconception and the reference is not the bandwidth/data charges that any user pays.

Every user transacts with Facebook by paying with her/his personal information and usage data. Facebook then packages this data and sells it to advertisers for a tidy sum. So, for the free versus paid debate to be real, we first need a completely free-to-access-Facebook, one where users can simply turn off their data tap from filling up the information pools of brands and advertisers.

This does not mean an ad-free experience; it simply means that the user’s data will never be available to advertisers and brands. The arguement will then extend to what can Facebook charge for beyond storage and heavy infrastructure use? A paid-for Facebook (whether the user pays with money or data) can offer special deals from brands to the users.

Think of it as discounts on products, free offerings such as movie tickets, an exclusive access to a certain product or service, or all of this and more.