“Facebook Should Charge Users For Ad-Free Version” Says Twitter Co-Founder

Biz Stone recently let out a rather interesting comment on Medium, where he discussed his thoughts on Facebook and their advertising / free model, which is strange to say the least given that he is the co-founder of Twitter, essentially the alternative / rival for Facebook, but he shared his business advice non the less.

“In general, the ads on Facebook don’t seem particularly useful or engaging. However, ads on the service are universally tolerated because that’s what makes Facebook free and free is nice.

Anywhoo, now that I’m using it and thinking about it, I’ve got an idea for Facebook. They could offer Facebook Premium. For $10 a month, people who really love Facebook (and can afford it), could see no ads. Maybe some special features too. If 10% percent of Facebook signed up, that’s $1B a month in revenue. Not too shabby.”

This idea has been floating around for a while but personally I can’t see it happening, Facebook is big for a reason and that reason is that it is free, I often find that once a premium option becomes available for a site or service, the “free” edition starts to taste bitter in a push to make you upgrade, eg; more adverts than ever before on the Free version once the premium option is in place.

It’s interesting that he would suggest this though, but since Stone is no longer at Twitter we can only assume that both Facebook and Twitter will remain free for the forseeable future.

Thank you Mashable for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Mashable.