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Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

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Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#271

Post by tw04 »

qqtt wrote: post #98

I'm going to go against the grain here and say this is probably a positive thing for Meta products, and honestly every other "free" service to provide these kinds of revenue avenues. How many times do we hear things like "if the product is free, you are the product" - well, the consequence of that is development resources tend to be pulled into directions that benefit advertisers. By having material subscription reve…

That’d be more relatable if they weren’t actively trying to remove encryption from their messaging to spy and serve even more ads at the same time they’re trying to charge a fee for the pleasure of giving them your data to sell.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#272

Post by CTDOCodebases »

qqtt wrote: post #98

I'm going to go against the grain here and say this is probably a positive thing for Meta products, and honestly every other "free" service to provide these kinds of revenue avenues. How many times do we hear things like "if the product is free, you are the product" - well, the consequence of that is development resources tend to be pulled into directions that benefit advertisers. By having material subscription reve…

These products already do what basically everyone wants them to do.

The problem is now people are conditioned to having their privacy violated so they are still the product and they will pay to be the product.

The network effects with a product like WhatsApp are strong so that this opens the door to dark patterns for the non paying customers. After enough time the same level of effort will go into the now subscription app that went into it when it was free.

YouTube is a good example of this phenomenon.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#273

Post by NamlchakKhandro »

notsydonia wrote: post #215

This seems smart of them in the sense that many creator/website owners have lost significant traffic that Google used to send their way and so are reluctantly pivoting back to paying more attention to social - for discovery. But speaking as someone who deleted a high following FB page that I probably shouldn't have because the back end of it was so infuriating, I don't understand this offering. It seems like a lot of…

I feel like I can explain this away with what I imagine happened in most middle managers driven development companies: the most factorio-esque spaghetti decision driven sunk cost fallacy thing ever.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#274

Post by NewJazz »

w-ll wrote: post #257
skillina wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I maintain Meta accounts for two purposes. Facebook Marketplace, and following local businesses on Instagram because it's become the de facto platform for many artists/bars/restaurants/popups to distribute information. I don't add friends, I don't "like" posts, and I don't doomscroll the garbage they put in my feed. I'm willing to give Meta the information that I enjoy old cars, bar trivia, and breakfast sandwich pop…

What does facebook marketplace have over craigslist?

Listings and audience.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#275

Post by whiplash451 »

compounding_it wrote: post #244

A new paid social media network with high privacy settings would defeat meta products quite easily. From what I understand, it costs around 27$ a year per user for Meta to run the business. At 5$ per month with limitations on size of your profile (like number of pictures), it would be quite easy to run a social media of this sort. This kinda of social media is what eventually everyone will move towards (and currently…

> it costs around 27$ a year per user for Meta to run the business

And a lot of this is probably spent maintaining the ad machine

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#276

Post by input_sh »

pj_mukh wrote: post #11

I would pay $49.99/mo for an unlimited plan that brings me only my friends' status updates (not their hyper-political likes and comments), just their life updates. Daily stories are great too. But JUST that, no influencers, no ads. I realize Meta's data shows that our user revealed preferences tells them that we like all the dopamine hijacking garbage but that's like saying "Well users like drugs, so we gave them mor…

There is not a single subscription in the world I would pay more than $20/month for personal purposes, unlimited (and I do mean unlimited) LLM tokens very much included.

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#277

Post by NewJazz »

skillina wrote: post #160
Marsymars wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sticky bit I have is facebook marketplace - it's wiped out the other classified marketplaces in my area. I'm not making any serious money off the old stuff I sell, but the alternative to selling it (or even giving away low-value stuff that's still functional) on facebook is basically just throwing it out / destructively recycling it.

I maintain Meta accounts for two purposes. Facebook Marketplace, and following local businesses on Instagram because it's become the de facto platform for many artists/bars/restaurants/popups to distribute information. I don't add friends, I don't "like" posts, and I don't doomscroll the garbage they put in my feed. I'm willing to give Meta the information that I enjoy old cars, bar trivia, and breakfast sandwich pop…

The instagram thing is annoying. Like the primary to find out about social events in my city seems to be Instagram. Yoga teachers post their schedules there, bars/venues post their events there, reddit is often an afterthought and still I'd prefer something else. But what??

Re: Meta launches Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions

#278

Post by NamlchakKhandro »

outime wrote: post #136
drnick1 wrote: post #46

Just stop using Meta products. It's really not as hard as it seems. Nobody needs FB to communicate with friends and family. Send texts or emails or use your phone.

>It's really not as hard as it seems Only on HN could someone post a take like this without getting laughed at. Outside our very geeky HN bubble, hardly anyone (let's say in Europe, but all my friends in the US use it as well) uses anything other than WhatsApp. There's literally zero reason for the average user to switch.

I'm not on what's app. So you need to switch to something else if you want to chat with me.
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