Will Facebook’s IPO Lead To PAID User Accounts?
While Mark Zuckerberg and his investors are out celebrating their $100 Billion Dollar valuation Facebook users like us are left wondering…
….With all this pressure of being a public company now, is facebook going to break their promise and start charging for user accounts?
It’s a valid question considering the fact that Facebook recently launched a new money making enterprise, where users can pay as much as $2 to highlight a post. The idea of this highlighted post is that more users will get to see it and as a result you would get greater results from your post.
Now in a business context this isn’t a bad idea, but Facebook didn’t launch it to businesses they launched it to users like us. This is a worrying sign, usually services like Facebook charge corporate users so they can provide free services to regular users. By doing this they can generate a large user following of which they then present advertising to, paid for by corporate users.
But this latest “highlighted post” campaign is raising concerns because it seems as if Facebook is ready to “over step” those boundaries and start monetizing their users. Already they make on average $3.75 per user through advertising revenue and now they’re looking for ways to increase that.
As a shareholder in Facebook this is great news for you as it’s going to result in higher earnings and higher profits, imagine Facebook’s spike in revenue when they’re charging even just $5 per user per account. As a user, if Facebook switches to paid accounts you’re going to have a decision to make…
…Lose all those photos, comments, status updates and friend connections on Facebook or pay for your account.
You see, this is where Facebook is sneaky; they have you so invested in your Facebook profile that they know a high percentage of users would pay as they don’t want to lose their “emotional investment”. The longer you’re a user on Facebook the more likely you are to “pay to stay”.
Now we don’t know about you, but this seems like a “sneaky tactic” where they are sucking you in with a free account, and then using their IPO as a reason to make you pay. Hopefully, with all the user backlash about the “highlighted posts” Facebook has shelved their ideas for user monetization for a little while…
…But some bloggers are reporting that Facebook actually makes a tidy income from their highlighted posts test, which as you know, will only lead to a roll out of that functionality.
Let’s face it, Facebook has never really cared too much about what users think and say, they just force the changes on you and require you to “fall into line”. Do you remember the back lash about the latest time line changes? What about the user uproar over privacy policy changes?
It seems as if Facebook is happy to let user outcry over planned changes to fall on deaf ears. You see, they know they’ve got you “hooked”, so while you’ll complain a little bit, for a little while, ultimately you’ll go quiet and put up with the change!
Well we can tell you if Facebook tries to monetize their users and make us have paid accounts, there’s a few users right here on this blog who aren’t going to “fall into line”. While we love Facebook, we’re not “hooked” enough to want to pay to socialize with our friends – especially when they’re already making billions from us.
Join us in the comments below and let us know, are you going to pay for a facebook account?
UPDATE: It seems even more likely to Facebook will push forward with some style of further monetization of the site in the short term. With Mark Zuckerberg losing $2 Billion Dollars over night and the share price dropping as low as $34. Not a great start for a new share listing…
I use Facebook every few days but I’m not addicted to Facebook like some of my friends (and colleagues). I read the title of your post and I thought to myself, “there is NO way that I will pay for a Facebook account!”
Yet, you are soooo right, would I want to lose all of the friend connections, photos, etc? It’s my only online social network so I’m not sure what I would do.
I’m with you. I saw this article and I was indignant at the idea that Facebook might charge fees. But I don’t want to miss out on networking or finding out what others are doing. I’m on the Facebook fence.
You said it right there, “…especially when they’re already making billions from us…” I feel Facebook has already got enough $$ from me–I use Facebook every day, I sometimes click ads, I visit business FB pages, I “friend” people, I’ve even seen Mark Zuckerberg’s least favorite movie, The Social Network, twice…how much more does FB want from my purse?
I was so mad when Facebook announced that you could pay to highlight a post. I will be even angrier if I have to pay for my general FB page. Do I really have to make up for IPO tragedy?
anyone who has worked with a facebook business page knows how difficult it can be to make the page how you want it…yes, they’ve brought out some new tools to make things a little smoother but i think mark zuckerberg has been too busy with his wedding and the ipo to notice that the biz pages are still not as good as something like wordpress…i would be willing to pay if i was guaranteed a better business experience on fb…
I know users would hate any charges from Facebook but shouldn’t businesses be excited by all the ad possibilities–new opportunities to highlight this and sponsor that?
Facebook should not “bite the hand that feeds” its social networking machine. There are a lot of Facebook fans out there that would quickly find another platform if they had to pay a fee. There must be a lot of platforms out there that would LOVE to court Facebook users.
You can add me to the list of Facebook users who will not pay for the service.
If they do make people pay, then Facebook will be as dead as MySpace. Facebook will be as dead as the things it killed like real birthday card sent in the mail …
Share price now down to 27.10 so investors will demand some new money making ideas from mark zuckerberg. Hope they don’t think I’ll foot the bill just so i can look at my wife’s cousin’s vacation snaps.
I would stay with Facebook even if it costs me a little bit. I don’t want to pay for the service-who does? But if it meant losing the ability to connect with friends & family, then I’d be willing to pay a small amount. I hope they would run less ads on my page though.
highlighted posts is the world gone crazy, we pay our friends to pay attention to us, who does this, why do they do this, i won’t pay for a fb acct, i’ll just log out and find some real friends
Hello! No, this lady is not paying for a facebook account. Sorry but I have enough bills with this recession. Facebook is great for connecting and generating some business leads but wait until the ultra-clean Google+ catches on and then there will be real competition. Google+ offers a beautiful interface and I can see what I’m doing. When I open up my facebook page, I don’ even know where to look, there is stuff happening on every inch of the page.
At one point today, facebook was below $27. If that doesn’t mean higher costs for all of us, I don’t know what does…Mark Zuckerberg and everyone at NASDAQ are going to look for a way to come back from this IPO disaster.
WILL FACEBOOK’S IPO LEAD TO PAID USER ACCOUNTS? Absolutely.
AM I GOING TO PAY FOR A USER ACCOUNT? Not a chance.