I know there has been a lot of talk recently about Facebook updating their TOC.

Sorry I can't find a better source.

Here is what Zuckerberg says about it.

I actually don't think their new TOC are designed to be evil more prevent them from having to painstakingly remove content from backups if they delete an account, but can they slip in new TOC under the radar without informing their users?

Good point Peachy, but as of today FB has reverted to its old TOC... there have been so many complaints, they are reviewing the situation .. and trying to resolve it,

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Dont let the Bastrads grind ya down

ok well fair play to them, it could be seen as weak but some organisations will plow on blind to the damage they are doing, at least FB seem to understand that this is a touchy subject and respond responsibly.

The thing that irks me with Facebook is that everyone is registered with the single entity. Unlike say with a mobile phone, where your chosen network interacts with other networks (OK not the best comparison, but you get the drift). Scary to think of the central database they hold and once market coverage was complete if they chose to introduce a small subscription charge.

People won't pay it. People do "free" not "pay". I am reminded this every time I am sent a begging email from Friends Reunited "we're free now please come back". I'm so glad they are failing.

Yes they will. I paid friendsreunited (5GBP) as the contacts were worth it. When millions of people who seem eager to share their every fart with the world are deprived of their (Facebook) website page they have spent years refining, I reckon they will pay.

BigD

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www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.

People spend all there time throwing vampires at one another because it is free, Facebook already have paid bits/apps/services and that is fine. If they try to take away the bits that are free in charging for them they will run into big problems. Everybody who is on there and maybe logs into the site once or twice a month only to delete the spam they have been sent will not pay, and then Facebook looses it's single redeeming feature, that everybody is on it.

If you think Facebook is too popular to fall then think again. Did you think the same about MySpace? Did you think that AOL or Ask was a dominant search engine? Hotmail a dominant mail provider? This is a really cut throat market and it is so incredibly easy for somebody to offer something better or more appealing the first mistake you make.

But these are not charities, and compete based on their business model in terms of subscriptions, advertising, merchandising, tie-ins or whatever.

Obviously if Facebook suddenly became 10EUR/year how many would defect ? Are their unique benefits worth that ? Where is the resistance point ?

To say that users will not pay is misleading. A large proportion may not but those that don't may not be valuable to your market in any case.

Again its value for money. Friends Reunited had almost every member of my school and university listed in one place. (At one time I considered this useful) 5GBP was cheap to establish contact with them, but their (FU) difficulty was ensuring that users come back for updates and maintain their subscription.

BigD

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You make your own luck.

www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.

I think you are basing your comments on whether or not you would pay and how you assess value. Heavy users of Facebook have, in my experience, quite different personalities.

Any defection to another service would be harmful to Facebook, maybe if they charged tomorrow a many people would not and the hangers on would find the amount of content reducing. You would probably see another site like Google's offering (whos name I forget) grow simply because everybody is on it. Would everybody renew their annual subscription second year running? We have seen this with myspace.

The problem is in trying to charge people to generate content for you.

For some technical forums I am a member of I would probably pay up to 100chf a year if it was a requirement to view content but then I would need some kind of guaranetee they were able to maintain the same level of content without people being able to generate that content for free which is what we are talking about here. If you offer something for free you have to offer something additional for paid especially in a user content driven website.

Some points

a) an annual subscription of a small amount is soon forgotten once paid.
b) once you are closely coupled with a site through contacts, entering information or whatever , you have a hysteresis there, and inertia that may prevent you leaving and having to do it all again. This is why many people work with old version of software or OS - because it is set up how they like it and it works.
c) internet addicts will tear their hair out if deprived of their fix for too long for example if shut out of their favourite site.

Subscriptions are one model, but by no means the only one. People will pay if they perceive what they are being offered represents value for money for them to do what they want to do. Features, facilities, resources and content all contribute. Obviously if you are playing a part in generating the content then you expect that to be considered, and what you are being offered must outweigh the subscription plus the cost of your perceived contribution.

If for example I was interested in webcams and I was a birdwatcher, I may mount a webcam in my garden and allow it to be access by other users from birdienet.com or whatever. In return I would get access to everyone elses webcams. How much would people pay for this ? No clue, it's not my idea, but if I was an avid ornithologist (and there are lots of them) then I may well pay if the coverage was better than available through other commercial sources and included a range of sponsored cameras in exotic locations....

BigD

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You make your own luck.

www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.