I would like to “measure your engagement” with Web 2.0 applications.
Would you pay $10 a month for your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or other Web 2.0 app account?
Things to consider including in your answer:
1. Why you would pay $10 a month, what is your “can’t do without” functionality?
2. Would advertising have to be banned from the app for you to pay anything at all?
3. What alternative would you use to achieve the same”can’t do without” functionality if you had to pay $10 a month for your account and there is NFW you are going to pay?
Please comment.
Hi Jim,
Well, I don’t know, maybe I am already too old (44), but I don’t see anything very valuable with the apps you mentioned (I am on Facbook and find it rather annoying).
1- I do pay (since last week) 20$ a month for LinkedIn (I needed to know who was looking at my profile!). I’ve got some business from being on LinkedIn, twice, so the ROI has been established for the next 10 years. I don’t think LinkedIn is that much useful in terms of functionalities per se, but the fact that people conduct searches on quite specific professional questions has proved beneficial.
2- Now that you mention it, I shouldn’t be seeing any ads (I would think) since I am a paying member on LinkedIn, but still…
3- Hmmm, don’t know. Google? Monster?
I don’t have any problems with paying monthly for some types of services. I have found it quite useful actually. The fact that one can unsubscribe anytime is reassuring, and I don’t have to cope with the technical problems that will always arise with locally installed software. Since I am an independent consultant, and travelling a lot, I try to be as independent as possible from the “box” (i.e. laptop): I need to use a meeting platform? boom I log in the service, need training with some applications? login in another service.
But you will say, those are not Web 2.0 applications, just old apps in their asp form. Yes, sure. I think that, at the end, it comes up to a plain matter of economic usefulness. Until Facebook demonstrates to me how economically they can be useful to me (i.e. the perception of the value they offer), I certainly will not dish a penny for it.
Pay for Facebook? I don’t think so. Age 42.
1. I can do without it. Like it, but has not become indispensible yet.
2. I can live with the small amount of FB ads since it’s free [plus Firefox adblocker]. If paying, I would want ZERO ad content. Cable TV charges AND advertises. yuck.
3. I’d put my apps and feeds on iGoogle and go back to emailing my friends- albeit with less frequency.
I won’t even pay for text messaging on my cell phone, so definitely am outside the core demographic.