A Paid Internet?
Much has been debated on whether or not the Internet will remain free. It appears it's often a debate between those where the glass is always half-full and those where it's always half-empty.
Nonetheless, I'm of the mindset that we've been getting a great freeview for about ten-plus years now. Ultimately, our email, our browsing of sites and now even social media has been free. This big freebie is typically the compliments of display advertising. However, as a marketer, I strongly feel the advertising-only revenue model just doesn't cut it anymore.
Without getting into details on the above, I'll stick to my point that ultimately I can see our e-mail transmission costing us. That's right - you may think twice in the future before you forward that chain e-mail to 50 of your closest friends because it may prove to not be worth it. We'll see.
Moving on to browsing and visiting sites, ultimately, sites need to monetize their web presence, so visiting sites should be free. However, the amount of time you spend online might not be. You may ultimately pay a token amount on the time spent online. Those logging-in - pretty much sporadically all throughout the day - may also think twice should their time spent cost money. After all, AOL used to give our 20 hours of free Internet - and I'm not sure this model should have ever died.
Then, of course let's remember the premium services like logging on via your smart-phone. Quickly becoming a must-have, I see twenty-somethings all over the place browsing as if they're at work. Sometimes they ARE at work. This trend won't die - so why not monetize it by charging for this premium service?
I'll end with a no-brainer - and include social networking. How can Facebook offer to host some folks' entire lives - their life database of friends and family - and keep all of it in one organized place for free? This would also fall into the premium category - and ultimately might become a paid-service.
Now, I know that some might angrily say "I won't pay for the web! Never!" Maybe you won't, but I think you might. After all, the web as it stands today won't be the web you feel is worth paying for in the future. The web will evolve - as will mobile browsing, social networking, etc. - and if you refuse to pay then you'll be out of the loop.
Facebook has already proven that about 75% of the nation wants very-much to be "in the loop". So, in my humble opinion, all that needs to be done is a little additional programming and feature-adding - as well as giving the pricing addition a little time to "breathe" and before long we'll all be paying about $20 monthly for all the added features the Internet brings us throughout our day.
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Nonetheless, I'm of the mindset that we've been getting a great freeview for about ten-plus years now. Ultimately, our email, our browsing of sites and now even social media has been free. This big freebie is typically the compliments of display advertising. However, as a marketer, I strongly feel the advertising-only revenue model just doesn't cut it anymore.
Without getting into details on the above, I'll stick to my point that ultimately I can see our e-mail transmission costing us. That's right - you may think twice in the future before you forward that chain e-mail to 50 of your closest friends because it may prove to not be worth it. We'll see.
Moving on to browsing and visiting sites, ultimately, sites need to monetize their web presence, so visiting sites should be free. However, the amount of time you spend online might not be. You may ultimately pay a token amount on the time spent online. Those logging-in - pretty much sporadically all throughout the day - may also think twice should their time spent cost money. After all, AOL used to give our 20 hours of free Internet - and I'm not sure this model should have ever died.
Then, of course let's remember the premium services like logging on via your smart-phone. Quickly becoming a must-have, I see twenty-somethings all over the place browsing as if they're at work. Sometimes they ARE at work. This trend won't die - so why not monetize it by charging for this premium service?
I'll end with a no-brainer - and include social networking. How can Facebook offer to host some folks' entire lives - their life database of friends and family - and keep all of it in one organized place for free? This would also fall into the premium category - and ultimately might become a paid-service.
Now, I know that some might angrily say "I won't pay for the web! Never!" Maybe you won't, but I think you might. After all, the web as it stands today won't be the web you feel is worth paying for in the future. The web will evolve - as will mobile browsing, social networking, etc. - and if you refuse to pay then you'll be out of the loop.
Facebook has already proven that about 75% of the nation wants very-much to be "in the loop". So, in my humble opinion, all that needs to be done is a little additional programming and feature-adding - as well as giving the pricing addition a little time to "breathe" and before long we'll all be paying about $20 monthly for all the added features the Internet brings us throughout our day.
Back