I know a lot of us use ad-blockers and the like so we don’t see ads often anymore. But we can get some insight as to how much certain “services” make by showing ads to the average customer when they have paid ad-free subscriptions available. YouTube, for example. Maybe streaming services.
I’m curious how much most things would cost in this case, especially since so many “services” tend to have maintenance and upkeep costs.
How much would Facebook cost to use if it were ad-free? Snapchat? Windows? (Which is extra gross for having all of an up-front cost, ads embedded, AI included, and pushes for paid subscriptions of its own complementary products…)
But that’s never the end of the story.
Look at Hulu. It started free with ads, them went to paid, no ads, then went to paid with ads and pay more for no ads. When it comes to sources of revenue, it’s never this or that, it’s this AND that and keep looking for another.
It gets more complicated when you have to factor in profit…and then shareholders…and then demands for exponential growth. That makes it harder to estimate how much is costs, how much is greed.
(Not that all of this should be free or delivered at cost, necessarily – it’s healthy for people to be able to make a living off of products or services they provide)