According to Techcrunch, Facebook’s growth and the costs associated with it will soon require the company to go back to its investors for money. The earlier investors had hoped that, by now, Facebook would have already gone public or at least, be on the road to an IPO. Alas, the financial crisis beat them to the finish line. So no IPO for now. What to do to cover its costs? An article on Slate suggests that Facebook charge money for its services. While there should always be a free membership, they can charge people who want to have more friends or use more of the Facebook services. Indeed, business networking sites like XING already so this so it’s nothing new.
What do you think?
8 March 2009 at 08:47
I think it would be a great idea for facebook to charge a very small amount, like $1-5/mo. This service has been a blessing to me for reunining with old friends from childhood that I really care about. If this would allow facebook to get rid of or catch any miss users that would be great. This service is much better that some that charge for their services. Thank you Facebook inventors.
10 March 2009 at 11:09
If Facebook were to charge, I would quit.
10 March 2009 at 13:02
It seems a farce. Unless Facebook starts talking about this, I’m not going to worry my pretty little head about it.
Watch out, the sky is falling…
Worrying about something that some blogger writes is absolutely silly (and yes, these are blogs that you’re reading).
Starting up a group to combat something that does not exist is an absolute waste of time.
Facebook knows that they’ll lose membership if they start charging everyone. And even if so, the talk is of charging people who have large accounts (500+ friends or whatnot).
Don’t you worry your pretty little heads.
Oh, watch out, the sky is falling!!
Made you look! Pfft.
10 March 2009 at 14:28
If facebook does start charging I would definitely cancel my account.
10 March 2009 at 14:53
We all pay for stupid iPhone apps or cellphone ringtones probably at least $10-$20/year (some of us much more). So paying $15/year for facebook is silly? I don’t think so!
10 March 2009 at 14:56
If they start charging they will lose all teenage users because there’s no way our parents will pay for that. So, they’d lose millions of users.
10 March 2009 at 18:25
I really can’t see FB becoming a pay site. to have different levels of access is realistic and justified. Right now we enjoy the ability to upload unlimited photos etc. That uses a lot of space on the servers and it makes the site more costly to run. I would pay a reasonable annual fee to have the unlimited space on the website.
I am sure that there will still be free access to write on walls etc. But my guess is the site is not making enough on ads alone to maintain itself.
IMO facebook is worth paying a small fee to keep it from disappearing.
11 March 2009 at 00:03
A monthly fee of $1-5 is ridiculous. On the other hand, an annual fee of no more than $20 is reasonable if they have to charge users anything at all. If teens can’t afford it, so be it. Go to MySpace if your parents won’t pay. It may weed out some of the losers here too.
How about charging these owners of applications that somehow have worms attached. If anyone is charged, it should be them who turn around and charge us for additional whatever is required to really enjoy some of them. Maybe then the hackers who want to infect people’s system will not hang around if they have to pay for it.
Come on people, don’t you want a safer site? A small annual fee is not going to break you and with all the adult users already here that will pay for it, Facebook may actually make enough to cover their costs and be able to handle all we throw at it! Hey, maybe they can get a government bailout too!
11 March 2009 at 07:51
They charge…I’m gone.
11 March 2009 at 08:33
Facebook would lose a LOT of members if it started charging. I, along with many others would not pay to be a member. If you agree and feel this is COMPLETELY WRONG, join:
Say no to Monthly paid facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54794468302&ref=mf
11 March 2009 at 09:11
So a monthly fee of $1 ($12/year) is ridiculous but $20 for a year isn’t? That makes no sense.
11 March 2009 at 09:20
A small monthly fee will destroy the site, and they know that. Not everyone has a cc, or parents willing to spend money for their kids to have profiles on a public website.
The best way for them to earn more money, in my opinion, would be to charge a small fee to people who want their applications listed in the application directory. 5/mo won’t hurt a developer/application in overhead much at all, and it’d bring in a good amount of cash considering how many apps there are out there.
11 March 2009 at 09:44
The reason I didn’t join Classmates.com 10 years ago is because of the limits to your account if you signed up for free. Now that social networking is widely accepted and competitor sites are popping up, charge sites will suffer, just as Classmates missed the boat big time. And what’s next- charging for email? Or charging to post on blogs like this? Please.
11 March 2009 at 12:28
I highly doubt anyone on my friends list would pay for Facebook. It’s a novelty and nothing more. If they start charging for it, it becomes one more thing to delete from your bookmarks and never look back. There are other ways to keep in touch with old friends. While I know there will be some who will pay for the service, Facebook would likely find their numbers greatly diminished and how would that make them the kind of profits they want? It wouldn’t.
It’s likely that they would plummet from their high numbers to a couple thousand users who wouldn’t bother much with it after the novelty wore off and they could no longer connect with the people they want to talk to or get in touch with. I really can’t see them doing this, but if they do, oh well.
11 March 2009 at 12:38
i would not pay for face book
11 March 2009 at 13:01
Most people would quit facebook if it became a pay site, It would cost more to make it a pay site then it costs for them to run right now. The legal issues involved would be a MUCH bigger problem. It would be much more profitable to have a larger company advertise on the main banner in facebook. With the number of people that see it on a daily basis it would probably be more profitable to the companies to advertise like this then on television.
11 March 2009 at 13:21
facebook already sells user info to corporate companies. now does it make sense to pay facebook to volunteer my info?
11 March 2009 at 13:35
People send billions of text messages from their cell phones and pay without complaining. Facebook provides a much more superior service than texting.
Yes I would pay – $1 to $5 per month seems reasonable depending on usage.
11 March 2009 at 14:16
If it goes pay, I wouldn’t mind it having a levels of service, similar to say LiveJournal.
Free: Full of ads and limited features, but can still add /find people, interact with them. But limited to like 10 pictures.
Monthly: A monthly fee, with limited ads, but have full features. (1 – 5, with a minimum of 3 months)
Yearly: A yearly fee, that is cheaper then running 12 months, still with limited ads and full features. (10 – 25)
Lifetime: A set fee, pay once and you are done. All features, no ads. (100?)
11 March 2009 at 14:34
Gmail and Picasa are free so I don’t see how facebook could charge to upload pictures. People could find other ways to share information and images. It seems the wall and the real time updates are the unique product that they have so there would have to be a charge for access. A couple dollars a month is probably possible but after that I would drop out of it. Basically it is not that user friendly that I am in love with the product and would keep it at all costs.
11 March 2009 at 14:53
I they create a charge whether for full or limited services, I’ll quit and just continue with MySpace and LindedIn. If they are having expense problems then they need to hire a marketing/sales director (I’m available) to sell more advertising to cover costs although it looks like they have a lot right now. And, I’m sure investors have many tons of money already. Lean to budget like everyone else!
11 March 2009 at 15:33
If facebook asked people to start paying for upgraded access, then it would be along the same lines as nexopia.
Teens pay for extra things on nexopia, so they can pay for Facebook. But to think of that in the current economic times is not such a hot topic…alot of students would pull from the site(myself included) as we can hardly pay for anything as it is.
11 March 2009 at 16:04
Facebook would lose a lot of people if this happened.
11 March 2009 at 16:38
If facebook charged I’d go back to myspace in a heartbeat. Facebook was the only reason I switched from myspace because it makes communication much easier. Get real people…paying money to use a site just to keep in contact with your friends? Not a chance!
11 March 2009 at 16:48
If they require people to pay for facebook, it would go to 100 million active users to maybe 3-5 million active users. Its meant for people who want to catch up, or stay with friends. Not you have to pay for all this.
11 March 2009 at 16:57
Absolutely not.. You would lose about 80% of the users.. Promise ya..
11 March 2009 at 18:38
If Facebook start charging, there is no point for me to maintain the account because FB will lost Million of users and most of my friends will stop using FB too.
So, what’s the point I apy for it?
11 March 2009 at 19:01
I wouldn’t pay to use FaceBook since so far I haven’t seen it provide anything really useful other than chatting.
Xing does not require all users to pay. There is a free version as well, which is what I use. I will not pay for any service that cannot provide me with something of value in return.
I am one of those people that do pay for preminum services for Hotmail but that’s because their service is a lot more useful and dependable than Yahoo & Gmail.
@jayphilips
11 March 2009 at 19:56
If they were to do this, they would lose out to Myspace entirely, who doesn’t charge anything at all. Terrible business plan.
11 March 2009 at 20:11
I thought facebook generated revenue from the ads that are posted. Also, there are some applications (gifts) that require you to pay. And the young crowd will lose out big time. This is a great way to keep in touch and find people who have the same interests. Maybe they could have paid membership and those people get extras (applications that you have to pay for, they can alter their page, etc) but overall, just keep the basics we all have now free.
11 March 2009 at 20:30
All you people fussing about this are beezys! Who gives a shit if facebook shuts down or charges for use? It is a cool site, but im sure another one will just pop up in its place to satisfy the consumer wishes. Don’t let a website run your life. Chillout!
11 March 2009 at 20:52
I second, third, and fourth that: If facebook charges, I will quit. However, they obviously have great programmers and minds because the site is amazing and the modules and ads are where they are going to make a killing. Facebook should find more effective ways to get people to pay…how about buying modules…beef up ad space…come on, this is what marketing departments are for. Don’t just be weak and resort to the 1995 AOL charge by the minute scheme. You have brilliant minds at Facebook so be more inventive to bring in revenue. Remember the economy is tough and consumers do not need more bills either.
11 March 2009 at 21:37
screw that i have enough bills already i wont be making another one for myself so bye bye facebook.
11 March 2009 at 22:27
To the person that said a 1-5 dollar monthly fee is ridiculous… how is that so?
Plus the fact that a dollar a month is less than a 20 dollar fee, and 2 dollars being just over. I could definitely see them charging per month, but you pay for a 6 month or year membership. Even a dollar per person per year would generate at least 3-5 hundred million dollars a year in profits.
(if even half of the worlds facebook users agreed to a $12/year charge, thats 50 million x $12, which equals 600 million dollars in profits)
However I do not think this will ever be the case, but if it were, would you really deal without facebook for just a dollar a month?
11 March 2009 at 23:30
I like the tiered idea with free accounts that are basic and heavy users paying.
If I had to pay I would want it to be ad free. There ads are allegedly geared towards the individual user and, if that is true, I’m pretty disgusted. I don’t want to be paying for this poorly designed ad service.
12 March 2009 at 00:32
suck people in, get them addicted, then charge them for the privlege sound like a bank to you people and friends
i”l quit like thousands of others will
12 March 2009 at 03:01
There are many things on the internet that are FREE. Facebook allows many business people to connect with other business people. Its a great tool, but if I had to pay for it I would go looking somewhere else. Some things in life should be FREE, but we are living in challenging economic times and you do what you have to do to survive. BUT I haven’t gotten anything really monitarily myself from Facebook, so I don’t know whether I would pay for it or not.
12 March 2009 at 05:06
To tell the truth, I think that if Facebook charged a straight-out fee it would kill them. There are countless high school and college kids using the site as a time-waster and to keep in touch with friends. These are broke kids. I really don’t think they would want to pay a fee to use something that they only get on to waste time.
12 March 2009 at 05:06
There are way to many free sites out there to use. So if facebook starts charging people will just move to one that doesn’t.
Especially all the kids that use this site. Parents aren’t going to pay for their children to use facebook.
12 March 2009 at 05:28
I will no longer use facebook if they begin charging. It is too time consuming as it is, outlong being charged for something that takes away time from me reading God’s Word or prayer. We have email that is free. If we want to communicate with each other, we can use email. Myspace is free. I would stay with myspace rather than pay anything. If myspace were to begin charging, they would be history too.
I came into the world without a computer, I can for sure go out without one. HA! We can go further in prayer than we can ever go on a computer. Sometimes I wish that all computers would crash and burn.
12 March 2009 at 06:01
Facebook is a place where students and adults can express themselves freely, stay connected with friends, and have fun. Honestly, if people start getting charged for using it, they will just move back to Myspace where you can do all that stuff for free. Or at least I know I would. I just don’t see how it’s fair to ask struggling college students for another payment out of their already dry wallets.
12 March 2009 at 06:30
it’s a simple solution for me. If Facebook begins to charge a fee, then it will be “about face for me” that’s right— 180 degrees—-I quit.
Merv’
12 March 2009 at 06:33
I am not paying. Not that desparate to get in touch with people. If it goes to that, I’ll drop out.
12 March 2009 at 06:50
At low level fee this would affect new people not to use this service and thus this would get lamer and lamer since no “new” old friends could be found….. nono to charges.
12 March 2009 at 07:08
I don’t agree with this facebook to be payed.Let’s say that I will pay and what if half of my frieds don’t wanna pay.Why should I use it then?
12 March 2009 at 07:46
If Facebook starts charging, i would go back to friends reunited, theres no way i would pay for the service. Facebook will lose a lot of people if they started charging.
12 March 2009 at 07:54
Facebook is considering a business plan they have never suggested they were planning on charging users. If they were to it would spell the end of Facebook as most of their users are younger students 13-21 wo are going to be hurt most of all by the economic depression as most will have incomes determined by parents or minimum wage jobs. as parents tighten there jobs time wasters like Facebook will be the first thing they cut and more of the others in the target range will be unable to find work as minimum wage jobs which use unskilled labor are usually the first to be dropped. a moderate user of Facebook easily has 250 friends and many have more. placing any limits on free Facebook accounts will result in a large amount of users dropping their accounts will create a large drop in incentive for advertisers to advertise there although I will admit for a while that will be inconsequential since they don’t need to advertise to those who can’t afford it but when the economy recovers facebook won’t just become free again but most of the users will not return they will have found alternatives adn with them not getting nearly as much from advertising and a few paying subscribers only it’ll be relgated to old headlines
12 March 2009 at 08:29
@Amon:
“We all pay for stupid iPhone apps or cellphone ringtones probably at least $10-$20/year (some of us much more). So paying $15/year for facebook is silly? I don’t think so!”
Cellphone ringtones are a rip-off. If you can connect your phone to a computer, you can use .mp3’s (a simple google would show anyone how to). And really, people who pay for iPhone apps are the same people willing to buy the _required_ data plan every month that comes with the iPhone. I doubt that “we all pay for” that and I doubt that most high school/college students would be willing to pay for facebook.
12 March 2009 at 08:31
“Go to MySpace if your parents won’t pay. It may weed out some of the losers here too.”
so by your definition the “losers” are people whose parents have their heads on straight and wouldn’t pay for a social networking site for their kids? or is it the kids (or their parents) who have more important things to pay for such as—oh, i don’t know—FOOD.
12 March 2009 at 08:33
Charging for Facebook is not simply justified due to the widespread use of it. There would have to be some pretty amazing features added, as well as a more efficient code or faster servers. No one will pay for it the way it is now. Rather, no one SHOULD pay for it the way it is now.
12 March 2009 at 08:40
this is an outrage!
12 March 2009 at 08:50
If it turns to a pay site…I’m out.
12 March 2009 at 08:54
with a hundred million users, if facebook decides to charge, it should be five dollars a YEAR. that would still make a hundred million a year, and that combined with the profits made from their ad system (which i will say is well targeted, so its worth companies paying a little more to use) should be enough to run a company like facebook. honestly, i cant imagine something like that requiring more than fifty to a hundred employees to run, with programmers, IT, marketing, and secretaries all involved. how much do you think mark zuckerberg is making right now? i really doubt they need that much more money, and that its just greed. ok, maybe i would go fifteen a year, but really.five to fifteen million dollars a year + ads and the occasional gift shold be enought to run a company like that.
12 March 2009 at 08:56
Charging for Facebook? I probably would be willing to pay a small fee annually, but I know that a lot of young people and financially challenged folks would not, thereby hindering my usage. A lot of those so-called “losers” are my friends.
However, there are a lot of big money people who use the site. How about soliciting donations like other non-commercial organizations do? Facebook is an immensely powereful and valuable tool, but precicely BECAUSE it’s free. We can make it happen, and many people, including myself, would be happy to donate. Charging I think will unavoidably turn FB into another hungry hungry hippo and ultimately kill the network. Peace, y’all!
12 March 2009 at 08:58
If they did I would definitely cancel my membership. only because this is free does it make sense for me to do it
12 March 2009 at 09:03
Already I have a friend on Facebook asking me to join a group against any charges for the service, yet most likely it’ll be quite awhile before this dialog takes place between Facebook and it’s members… I think Facebook can and needs to suck it up. I won’t pay.
12 March 2009 at 09:06
NO to paying for FASEBOOK
12 March 2009 at 09:28
Hhahahahahaha, go america!!!
having to pay to use an online social networking site, sounds awsome…. NOT
whatever the system always fucks fun shit up anyways so who gives a shit….
facebook will eventually dissepear when a new free website comes out that’s even better, so whatev
12 March 2009 at 09:34
I agree, it’s the outside applications who should be paying Facebook.
A bunch of them only exist to get access to users’ information anyways, they might as well be paying for it.
12 March 2009 at 09:41
If Facebook charges as fee I will not remain a user. If they can’t get sponsors/adverser support they need a new management team. Let their BOD email me if they need help doing that.
12 March 2009 at 09:42
If facebook charges; I quit. The beauty of this site and its ability to draw people together is that freedom to belong…FOR FREE.
12 March 2009 at 10:22
“in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty)
thus, in humanitarian terms, to charge anything at all simply is not right.
if facebook creator is among the richest in the world, he ought to use that money wisely to steer our course towards the new age of true freedom and peace.
12 March 2009 at 10:31
First point, facebook has made fortunes with literally no investment (people like me and you are the investment who hit the website and he/them makes tons of money).
Second point, if they planning to go pay, then i would say it will be the most ridiculous and dumbest thing to do. I would delete my account immediately.
BRICK nations (developing nations like brazil,russsia,india,china,korea)are yet to catch up with facebook , where the future of world economy lies.
So if facebook goes paid then no one is going to pay (being so many other social sites like orkut,myspace, hi5 for free). So it would be the beginning of end for facebook.
12 March 2009 at 10:44
Maybe if they charge for all these stupid applications or bands, etc its like modelmayhem.com. Its free until you have over 30 pix(although each pic can be high mb for photogs and models etc. )but the site is free for the basic. It works. I like the old facebook. I like to occasionally poke a friend to let them know I am thinking about them. However, these application requests irritate me. Pay for those.
12 March 2009 at 10:49
I would just go back to myspace.com
12 March 2009 at 11:18
I pay $15.00 a month to utilize extra features on LiveJournal.com – it’s not a huge expense and I actually use FB more than LJ. Not a huge deal IMO, I’d pay if they instituted it. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes – why shouldn’t they make some money from it?
12 March 2009 at 11:35
They charge and I’m peace out!
12 March 2009 at 11:45
What about all those people around the world with whom I’m connecting? Many of them will not opt to stay on, which, in turn, would make Facebook less useful to me. I really can’t see this work without significantly diminishing the contacts I’m able to make on Facebook.
12 March 2009 at 11:52
Johanna OUT……………………..
12 March 2009 at 11:52
Of course I don’t want to have to pay for anything extra in this day and time; however, this site has been incredible for me and as long as it was reasonable, of course I would do it. For those that said they would quit, it obviously isn’t very important to you and that’s okay. I thank GOD for facebook.
12 March 2009 at 12:09
If Facebook charged I would quit. Its not worth it to me when I have IM and email for free. Plus Facebook is directly competing with Twitter who is also free, Linkedin who is free for the most part, myspace which is free and all the other misc. social networking sites – all free.
12 March 2009 at 12:40
Hey, if Facebook wants to commercialize, let them. I don’t use it often enough to care one way or the other. If I DID use it often enough to actually care, then I’d probably be doing MUCH more with it now than I am – and “APPS” mean NOTHING to me… kidnapping, mafia wars, etc. Why would anyone do this? Do people have nothing better to do to entertain themselves? Have people forgotten that there is a WORLD outside of their computer hutches and actual SUNLIGHT outside of their computer rooms? Geez, get creative! Stop slumping down in that computer chair, or sitting on the arm of the couch as I do, and get out there, play with your kids, do your homework, call your parents – or if you still live with them walk over and give them a hug – people are seriously losing touch with the idea of face to face communications, they like everything to be sterile and free of commitment and painless. Well, if it’s worth having, it’s worth risking some personal comfort is it not? Start developing REAL relationships, start having REAL conversations, and give this FB thing what it needs – the OFF SWITCH.
Either that, or contribute something to them if you are a REAL user and not some App junkie. $250billion in mafia money or vampire savings… GET A JOB!!! And a life!!!
12 March 2009 at 13:09
See if Facebook did decide to charge people, im sure its popularity would have a down fall. the whole point, in my eyes, is Facebook is a place where you can talk and reunite, why put a price on that?
12 March 2009 at 13:24
FB becoming a paid site? Are you serious? I would cancel my account.
When FB was first launched they made sure to let everyone know that it would be a FREE SITE. If the money earned from the site was to go to a goernment bailout then that would be one thing, but we don’t know that it would go to the government. Charging for FB is a ridiculous idea, I think it’s going to pose a big problem and going to lose a lot of users.
12 March 2009 at 13:31
If facebook decided to go pay…people would just go back to Myspace…myspace has no monthly costs…and according to Tom, despite rumors of the otherwise…no intention of going pay…
12 March 2009 at 14:04
NOOOOOOO!!!!!
PLEASE DON’T MAKE US PAY!!!
Do they realize how many people will just delete themselves from Facebook? A TON of people would do that. Who wants to pay for getting in touch with their old classmates and new friends? I certainly don’t!
12 March 2009 at 14:13
I think what some people don’t understand is that for advertisers, TEENAGERS are the cash cow. They are the primary demographic driving consumption in this country. It’s not as simple as “getting rid of those losers” as one person stated. Rather it is a complex problem where they desperately need to keep teenagers in order to draw more advertisers. Facebook is essentially a MASSIVE collector of marketing data for companies. Do you think all of your favorite books, music, movies, TV shows, etc.. are ignored? That is all part of a data collection machine.
However if Facebook is facing tough times, most definitely I think it is reasonable to charge a small fee for picture storage space past a certain number of pictures or photo albums. That would greatly reduce the demands on them for more space by new and current users.
12 March 2009 at 14:20
I would pay a small annual fee $10 to $20 dollars a year. I would rather pay then look at a bunch of ads. Monthly fee might cause to many people to leave, and if I have no friends to keep in touch why pay?
12 March 2009 at 14:21
Ok, so here’s the deal. There are many companies that pay sites like facebook to allow them to advertise on their sites. I’d prefer to see more advertisements than have to pay for the site I’ve come to love. However, if they start making us pay for facebook, I’ll go back to myspace.
12 March 2009 at 14:34
If they start charging I will be cancelling my account.
12 March 2009 at 14:36
i think the idea of charging for a networking site caters to young adults and teenagers is ridiculous…many myspace users switched to facebook because it was better…but if facebook starts charging many facebook users will switch to a new free networking site. I have had a xanga a myspace and a friendster, i keep switching because the next one is always better! Facebook may loose advitisers because there would less users which means less annual revenue for the corporation! Not many people will pay for a blog site that can be found somewhere else for free…if facebook starts charging hundreds of new blogs will pop up in hopes that they will be the new FREE networking site…
12 March 2009 at 14:42
If facebook started charging, I don’t think I would use it anymore. I’m already poor enough paying for my own college as it is.
12 March 2009 at 14:43
facebook has gotten way out of hand. it was originally for students who are in college and now parents and people from junior high and high school, and alumni are using facebook as well. there are consistently changing the home page. and now asking facebook users to pay is ridiculous. they would lose tons of users and facebook would cease to exsist. maybe they should ask the users what they think and if majority says no(and i think they will say no) then they shouldn’t invest in this at all
12 March 2009 at 14:45
Yes, all teenagers will stop using it, that will lose the majority of users. I know I will be cancelling my account if it happens.
12 March 2009 at 14:58
Without a charging, Facebook increases the opportunity for abuse both civily and criminally. If people have to pay one thin dime to FB, they are less likely to participate in abusive behavior in FB because they simply won’t join. I say good riddance to that faction of FB ABusers, anyway.
12 March 2009 at 15:42
I think charging for facebook is a TERRIBLE idea.
charging for all the stupid applications would be more reasonable, but advertisers pay a lot of money to facebook, im sure their economic standings are just fine with no fees to the users.
12 March 2009 at 16:10
Most of us that use facebook are high school and college students. we do not have the money to hand over every month. all i know is that if facebook begins to charge money to use it, they will have a huge up-rising on their hands and a lot of people will quit facebook. Facebook has been a huge deal to a lot of people whether it is finding friends from early childhoods or for communication with people. Facebook – dont lose what you already have.
12 March 2009 at 16:34
If teenagers can’t pay??? That strikes me as funnier than Facebook having to charge.
My sons who are 13, 15, and 17 can all work and get paid for it. If it is that valuable of a service, then let them get to work. It’s not a parents responsibility to pay for every one of their kids whims.
The value that Facebook has provided me would be worth a nominal yearly fee.. One that I would pay $20.00 a year for.
The Internet mentality is everything should be free… But “Free” doesn’t pay for bandwidth, servers, staff, etc…
12 March 2009 at 16:51
I would cancel my account if FB became a paysite. The reason I use it is because it’s a free, easy way to find friends and stay connected. The users are the ones who make the site its money to begin with. So why should we be the ones paying to do that? Yes, please, charge us to make you money….. Let’s see how many users you have when that happens.
12 March 2009 at 16:58
I paid for Classmates.com. I paid for Reunion.com. Many of my friends joined, but very few stayed because of the fee. The biggest attraction of Facebook is that all of my friends are on it. A lot would quit if there was even a small fee, so Facebook would lose it’s attraction and people would start looking for the next free social site.
Facebook needs to make a profit to stay in business. With millions of users, Facebook should be able to make millions by selling advertising. There are ads on the site already. Wouldn’t companies pay to have their advertising reach millions of people? I hope so.
12 March 2009 at 17:02
Being able to connnect with your friends or long lost friends is the whole point of facebook. Would you stay on a paysite that none or few of your friends are still on? I wouldn’t, it defeats the purpose.
12 March 2009 at 17:20
If FB charges it will turn into Napster – once the hottest site on the web, now a silly C-level sharing site nobody is interested in. What made Napster great is what makes FB great, the fact that EVERYONE is there. One I lost the ability to find obscure songs from interesting Napster users, it lost it’s appeal. Once I lost the ability to find a person I haven’t seen since grade school, FB will lose it’s appeal. The freedom is what make them work. Find a different answer FB. Go public with a low IPO. Server space is pennies on the gig these days. More ads – no fees.
12 March 2009 at 17:34
To all the people who are saying they will quit … didn’t you read the part in the hypothetical proposal that mentioned that THERE WOULD STILL BE A FREE OPTION???
I am familiar with the tiered pay structure used by 37signals and think it is a good one. Flickr is a great example of a site that also has free and paid versions. I have absolutely no problem paying for my Pro Flickr account. I really wouldn’t mind if Facebook came up with a similar system. I would easily pay $20-30/year to continue using Facebook in the same way I currently do.
12 March 2009 at 18:04
Funny, Myspace is MORE popular but they don’t charge, nor would they. I agree with people saying that Facebook would loose it’s teenage population and I agree that if Facebook starts to charge, I will definitely cancel my account. I don’t have the money for that kind of stuff. That would be complete asinine.
12 March 2009 at 18:14
Besides the fact that people can’t afford much of anything these days, it would be a bad idea for people to have to give their credit card details over the internet, which as you should know is unsafe on any website… So why add one more to the list…?
…Not to mention those people who don’t even own credit cards. How would they pay for it?
I don’t think it’s worth it at all…
12 March 2009 at 19:25
i really believe that the folks who write games, applications, flower and gift delivery systems, etc. (especially the ones that force one to join) should be charged and the ones that ‘happen’ to send worms and other sorts of mischievous ware onto machines should be charged as FINES. but for regular sorts of users who use it to check in with families and friends over long distances, to get them to pay would be the death knell for FB. after all, someone else will just come along and write another, probably better app to takes its place.
Oh, and another thing: if FB wants to charge users then they will have to change their usage and ownership policies which allow FB to exert ownership over materials that users have hosted with them. FB will also have to return such items and since it seems that they are unwilling to do so already, they might have to get ready for more than just a mass walkout of users and maybe user based litigation.
12 March 2009 at 19:33
This is silly. Just up the add space.
12 March 2009 at 19:40
It seems a bit hars to use terms as “losers” and “weeding out”. Everything is relative.
Teenagers are also people and they also need social life.
Others like my family, my friends and me are miles apart and Facebook is a great way to keep in touch.
Should a monthly fee be introduced, all of us would very likely cancel the service subscription.
As for hackers, spamers and etc, those will still be around and may even increase in numbers. As of this moment FB is still suffering from many security flaws and when money will be involved, there will be plenty of opportunists to have a slice of the action.
Facebook is not a beggar on the street corner. It enjoys steady revenue from Advertising and Application Developers. This is simply a question of wanting more and more. If a fee would spur the hiring of new employees, it is great, however I personally would not count on it. It is always cheeper to make current personnel to work a little harder.
12 March 2009 at 20:00
If Facebook begins charging a monthly fee, it is almost guaranteed they will go out of business. The reality is that many sites exist, and for the most part, there is no charge to be on them. It would be a very poor idea, especially in this economy (worldwide recession), and people would feel gouged and taken advantage of.
12 March 2009 at 20:21
Facebook is nice, however, if there were a charge I would quit. there are other means of keeping in touch with friends, funner than facebook too.
12 March 2009 at 21:17
100 million active users
google ads
google doesn’t charge and they make loads of money
100 million users. they don’t need to charge $1 a month, do they? what’s the overhead? how many employees?
and seriously, why do they really want to start charging people? they want to make s tons of money and join the wall streeters? are they considering an ipo?
if they start charging a price the market won’t bear they will fade away an be replaced.
if i see this kid crashing his ferrari on the way to his gold-plated helicopter i’m going to cancel my account.
12 March 2009 at 21:51
The idea is just ludicrous. Although myself and many of these other responders see no issue with a small payment, the reality is that they would lose most to a competitor and the competitor would use that to it’s advantage. And I mean even if they have both a free and premium. The free users would just get sick of all the pressure ads to ‘get premium’.
12 March 2009 at 21:56
I say do like Apple does and charge for the SDK. And also charge the fb apps devs such as mafia wars. Hell, I’m sure Zinga makes a buttload of mula when people start paying extra for xp. Make them share that pie.
12 March 2009 at 22:34
Well, just like the trend went from MySpace to Facebook if Facebook started charging then another free social networking site would pop up and people would transition their accounts to that.
12 March 2009 at 22:46
no need to charge, and who cares if people make apps with viruses on them, people should learn to look into things before they go downloading everything anyway, if facebook needs more money they can put more ads on the website.
13 March 2009 at 00:08
i think it would suck and i wouldn’t be on facebook anymore..neither would most of my friends..shortnsweet that would not be cool……………..
13 March 2009 at 01:32
Whether you think it’s a bad idea or a good idea, it is still only an idea that I have never heard any Facebook admins actually talk about.
If Facebook does flirt with charging, they need to be careful. The economy isn’t going to be magically fixed overnight and when people start making cut backs on their personal budget because they have fallen on even worse times, Facebook will be the first unnecessary charge gone. These are the same people who use free P2P software instead of the local record store or iTunes for their music. If they’ll do everything in their power to pirate music, movies and video games, I doubt they’ll pay a fee, no matter how small.
Now, how about, instead of charging the common garden variety user, charge the people who make apps, or the people who create redundant groups. If you want to charge people because they have too many pictures, then maybe just give someone the option of buying extra space to upload to once a certain quota is surpassed. Charging someone because they have more than a certain amount of friends is absolutely ridiculous, however. It’s like being fined for knowing too many people.
Facebook can make money without alienating it’s members. The bottom line is people will not pay for something they have been getting for free, and can continue to get for free by switching to another social networking site that is still free.
And of course once again, bloggers that, to the best of my knowledge, are not employees of Facebook are the only ones suggesting Facebook cost money.
13 March 2009 at 01:40
The best thing about FB is its free. Almost ALL the people I know would quit FB if they charged. One more good thing Gone!
13 March 2009 at 03:17
I quit classmates.com because of their fees, and would do the same for Facebook. NOW, if they kept it reasonable, say $20/year, I might consider saving, but charging $20 per month (for example), is just plain GREED!
13 March 2009 at 03:39
I think with the way times are right now,It would be nice to see something free for a change,Not everybody has any extra money right now.
13 March 2009 at 04:15
So what if they do? Classmates does it. Some pay some don’t. If you don’t want their paid membership you don’t take it. Hey it does cost money for them to be on the web. Websites are not free by any means. If you don’t want to pay then start buying from their advertisers!
13 March 2009 at 04:34
If facebook would start to charge, more than half of the users would quit! It is a very bad idea.
13 March 2009 at 05:14
Bad idea to charge. How many people are out there that just can’t afford to pay ? If they are worried about server space, maybe they should cut down on the amount of things they allow people to upload. Find better sponsors Facebook.
13 March 2009 at 05:36
I think it is fine for them to charge fees for certain types of services or after you go over a certain limit. Most sites out there have free and premium versions. I see no reason why facebook couldn’t do the same. If it is between paying a small fee and losing facebook, I would pay the fee. Also, you teenagers seriously can’t be saying you couldn’t come up with $15 bucks to pay a yearly membership. Give me a break. Ask for it for your birthday or something and welcome to the real world where nothing is free for long.
13 March 2009 at 05:45
I can understand why they would want to do it now that advertising dollars are drying up, but I think they would lose alot of members. I also think it would turn away the potential new users that are sceptical already. Maybe institute a donation type setup, where people can give a few bucks if they want. Our, to create groups it costs a fee. There are many different ways to try it without turning off the average user or user wannabe.
13 March 2009 at 05:58
I think its kind of ridiculous if facebook starts charging. It was originally created as a site for COLLEGE STUDENTS. It started going down hill as soon as they allowed highschool kids to use it and now its turning into the new myspace with allowing anyone with an email address to go on. They could have avoided this whole mess by just keeping it exclusive to those with college email addresses. What do 12 and 48 year olds need facebook for anyways?
They should make 2 sites then- one like the old facebook, for people and alumnists with college email addresses and another one for everyone else. At least then i don’t have to worry about my aunt or employer seeing my spring break pics.
13 March 2009 at 06:52
The simple fact of it is if they become a pay site people will start using other sites more again like myspace…..why pay for something you still dont have to just by switching websites
13 March 2009 at 07:01
Facebook makes enough money from advertising tricks and dumb applications. I am not happy with laptops or dating services being advertised on MY profile, but since it’s a free service, I don’t mind. The moment they start to charge money I am going to quit, simply because such services should be free. Anyway, if people just quit, Mr. “F**k me, I went to bed and woke up rich” Zuckerberg will go down. We better be united over this issue…
13 March 2009 at 07:04
I like many others will not pay for facebook if they start wanting money to keep or get this site. I will quite so will few other of my friends who are on this.
13 March 2009 at 07:16
If Facebook becomes a fee charging site, I’m likely to cancel my membership.
Sure, I enjoy it. It even let me find some old friends. But ALL of the content that makes it worth anything is provided by the users (i.e. my friends). So far, nothing that Facebook provides, besides server space, is worth anything to me. So.. unless it’s also going to start paying the people for their content… it seems unfair to charge me for access to the content it doesn’t generate itself.
At most, it should have tiered levels — so there is always some part that is free.
13 March 2009 at 07:21
With the economy the way it is right now, I understand why Facebook administrators would want or may need to charge a small fee for users to utilize the site. However with the amount of people who are unemployed(like myself) enjoy the fact that it is free. I would be forced to switch back to myspace (as I’m sure the majority of people on facebook would too) because every penny I have already has a place. Facebook is my outlet. They should try and cut down on all the apps they have on there, and maybe first start by charging people to use the apps…..this to me sounds a little more reasonable. Keep facebook free and just charge for the extras(ie apps, messaging(even though I love it), and maybe put a limit on how many pics you can upload, once you reach that limit then you have to pay a fee to post more)
13 March 2009 at 07:34
This site is great and a small charge as the site improves is not so bad with all that we get to do and store here.
13 March 2009 at 07:57
It’s all well and fine for idiots to say it’s ok to charge for facebook. If and when that happens I’ll be saying adios. I’m struggling to pay my internet every month – I definitely can’t afford $5 and up more a month. To the ones who say it’s ok is because they can afford it. Facebook better watch out if this happens because they’re are a lot of the little guys out there that cannot afford for them to start charging. There will be a mass exodus if they do.
13 March 2009 at 08:01
I am an adult who lost my job due to the poor economy. To be exact I am 40 years-old. Me and my friends who lost our jobs use facebook to keep in contact with each other, and in contact with those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs. NO WE ARE NOT TEENS WHO CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY FOR FACEBOOK, WE ARE THE ADULTS WHO CAN’T AFFORD TO PAY FOR FACEBOOK. “So be it” What a gross and terrible attitude from an adult that has no compassion for others.
I am sorry to say that if facebook would start charging for it’s services I COULDN’T AFFORD to keep using it. And I know several others who would be in the same boat. We were so excited to find out about facebook and how we could keeep in contact with each other after our last day of work. I am positive we are not the only adults in this situation.
In such a bad economy, Facebook needs to realize that people prioritize what they spend their money on. When it comes down to a choice of paying for Facebook or my child’s lunch, or her tennis balls she was required to take into school, or anything else my family needs; Facebook will be the first choice to go. And it’s not because I would want to leave Facebook, I would have no other choice.
The money I receive from unemployment has to be stretched out thin the way it is. There would be no room for even $20.00 a month. That is not a lot of money to some people, but it is to others who are just trying to keep from losing their houses.
13 March 2009 at 08:11
I would cancel my account. If they wanted to make money they should have started a pron site… or a real business
13 March 2009 at 08:36
Nothing good comes free – for long anyway. I wouldn’t mind a SMALL annual fee, but others obviously are upset and would quit. I understand that – it kind fo defeats the purpose, the original concept these guys had when it was first developed on their College campus.
I have paid to advertize – perhaps there are others who could use this more often, thus generating cash; maybe there are other such angles, optional services that are available but at a cost. They may/may not have looked into this type of thing.
Anyway, I too have connected with long lost people once in my life and am grateful to Facebook for that. I feel I own them – something! And its a great site, put together well. Just my 2 cents – you can keep that, but ask me for an unacceptable monthly fee, and I’m outta here too!
13 March 2009 at 08:37
No – I feel I OWE them. God forbid I would own them …
13 March 2009 at 09:20
Please, please PLEASE, facebook! Please start charging! I want my old life back!!!
13 March 2009 at 09:34
The one who broke out wit ….. “I think paying for having friends on facebook is a GREAT idea…” is no doubt rich…. I have been a facebook person since freshman of college… and I am now 25, i have a huge network of ppl who i kno n stay connected wit… paying for this would have me leave facebook…. n most of my ppl… Facebook will fall
13 March 2009 at 09:36
Mar: “A monthly fee of $1-5 is ridiculous. On the other hand, an annual fee of no more than $20 is reasonable if they have to charge users anything at all.”
You do realize that $1 a month is less than $20 a year.
13 March 2009 at 09:48
This is ridiculous, Facebook will never charge. That would boot most of their subscriber base right away.
13 March 2009 at 10:03
i, too, would quit if facebook started charging.
and in reply to amon – not all of us pay for ringtones and iphone apps. i don’t even have an ipod let alone an iphone, and my cell phone is a four year old dinosaur with no image capability. as so many people get swept away to gadget land, it must be hard to realize that not all of us are with you.
13 March 2009 at 10:12
Facebook already makes million off apps that use “pay for extra stuff” like spare change ect, they also make millions off click advertising. most click ads pay 10-25cents per click so will several million users i am sure even 20% clicks 1 ad every hour 10 times a ay maybe thats about $1.-2 a day x 3 million.. think about it lol
they make eough. i think by law they should be forced to prove they need to make more to cover costs..
look at recent job losses in big industry.. chrysler wants to pull out of canada because the wont get government bailout, yet they still made profits of several hundred million “PROFITS” i say let them leave same as let facebook threaten Pay site services.. ppl will call thier bluff an walk
13 March 2009 at 10:21
Facebook’s great – but I wouldn’t pay for it. No way, no how.
Besides – people would just find a way around it. Like multiple “free” accounts if they put restrictions on how many friends or status msgs. you could have with the free one.
There’s always a way to circumvent the system. As for me – I just wouldn’t bother…I’m ditch it. Hey – it’d probably free up a lot of my time for other, more productive things anyway.
13 March 2009 at 10:25
uhhh no. this is stupid facebook would not charge you. if they did they would lose almost everyone paying for that would be retarded
13 March 2009 at 10:34
Facebook should have never changed from its original purpose – a COLLEGE STUDENT ONLY site. When I registered, I was required to have a .edu email address. As soon as facebook opened up to everyone, I basically stopped using it. Hundreds of people I had never met were requesting to be my friend, it gave sex offenders another social networking site to utilize (look at very recent news stories and you’ll see that states are finding thousands of registered sex offenders on the site, and some states have specific laws banning sex offenders from social networking sites that allow children as users), and generally gummed up the site. There are plenty of other sites people could use (MySpace?!?!), and Facebook should have stuck to its original purpose and integrity. I have well over 600 friends on Facebook, and have at least PERSONALLY met each and every one of them. If facebook wants to charge me for that, fine, I’ll drop it today and find another way to keep in touch. Texting people I want to keep in touch with is faster and easier anyway. How come people insist on taking a good thing and just wrecking the S**T out of it?
13 March 2009 at 10:39
i will not pay to go on facebook…
13 March 2009 at 10:42
If facebook were to charge, it would lose at LEAST the majority of its users. Especially with the economy the way it is, people are not going to use money for things like this. Sure the diehard facebook users would at first, but when they see that all of their friends and others are cancelling their accounts, they the diehard users will no longer even want an account because their were be no point.
So charging users anything more than nothing, would be terrible news for facebook and would become a thing of the past within days.
After all of the great work they have put into making this social networking website, it would all go to waste, and good luck trying to sell a company like facebook with no clients or users.
Just my two cents…
13 March 2009 at 11:00
Wow! If you are really blessed by Facebook, why not donate so it won’t have to go to a paid service? Going to a paid service will end it OVERNIGHT.
13 March 2009 at 11:01
If facebook were to start charging, I would definately cancel my account. This is a great site It should STAY FREE
13 March 2009 at 11:03
Why not? Thats why they started this site anyway! Rather than whine about a few bucks per person you could keep in touch with friends on your own like you should have anyway right?
19 March 2009 at 10:57
I could afford it if they added a fee, but frankly the service is not worth it to me. I keep my page there so old friends searching for me can get in touch. If they want tiered system, that’s fine. People like me who want a minimalist profile could still be “present” while others who desire a super-dynamic, ultra-active involvement could elect to spend a few bucks to get that…
22 April 2009 at 21:32
There is no truth to this. They are NOT going to charge for service.
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7830237130
Their revenue is derived from advertising. If they start charging and losing their user base, their advertising revenue is going to tank. It would be financial suicide for them. Anyone with a modicum of common sense can figure this one out. Economics 101.
1 January 2010 at 06:10
If they charge for Facebook I will be gone and I will remove every picture and comment I put up too! I can go back to My Space easy!
16 January 2010 at 11:56
I think that this would be a very bad idea as for who ever wouls actually pay for something that they could easily live without, millions of users would close their accounts so advertisers would see it as less desirable, so there they would loose millions of dollers and all in all, they would have a big loss!
18 January 2010 at 09:13
If facebook start charging i will be leaving
its not worth paying for
21 January 2010 at 07:19
FB fee = goodbye FB
24 January 2010 at 07:03
If FB charges. I’d be forced to quit. I don’t need another bill.
3 February 2010 at 10:42
they dont even have our address how will they send us a bill
3 February 2010 at 12:19
They’ll email you, ask you to pony up some money, and if you don’t, they’ll turn off your account. Very simple.
4 February 2010 at 15:47
well u gotta point
2 March 2010 at 04:36
this is bullshit guys….
we cant pay for facebook…
how much we earn????
we r just high school boy…..