A radical business plan for start-ups: Charge people.

Re:A radical business plan for start-ups: Charge people. by snprbob86 on Friday October 31, 2008 @01:56PM (#350158)

I've put some serious thought to the question "How much is a Facebook account worth?"

Clearly, there must be a free account available because it wouldn't be worth a penny if it didn't have as many users as it did. So I re-framed the question as "What parts of Facebook are worth a premium?" as well as "What parts of Facebook would I pay for?"

Unfortunately, the list is pretty short. I used to use Facebook a lot during college, but now I use it for the occasional info or photo lookup. When I'm bored waiting/traveling/etc, I will usually whip out my iPhone and comment on a bunch of feed items and that's always worth a few laughs. But would I pay for that? I just really can't see myself needing it badly enough.

What "advanced" or "premium" features do all of you use? What would you pay for those features?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A radical business plan for start-ups: Charge people. by thorax on Friday October 31, 2008 @02:12PM (#350185)

Out of curiosity, if it disappeared tomorrow, how much would you pay to get it back?

("Sorry guys, we can't afford it anymore! We need people to chip in $1 each a month or we have to shut down. These friends of yours have already agreed to stick around: XXX, YYY, ZZZZ")

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A radical business plan for start-ups: Charge people. by dangoldin on Friday October 31, 2008 @03:42PM (#350284)

I actually wish it disappeared. It would make a lot of people more productive (me included) and allow me to not worry about writing a facebook app.

This is like a negative network effect where so many people are sucked into this black hole that it's hurting everyone.

I'm exaggerating a bit but I do see a negative effect. It may be outweighed by the positives but it's still there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:A radical business plan for start-ups: Charge people. by snprbob86 on Friday October 31, 2008 @02:39PM (#350210)

That's an interesting exercise, but in reality I wouldn't expect enough of my friends to pay to stay on. There would be a mass drop in the number of users, significantly devaluing my membership. So if that were to happen, I wouldn't pay anything. However, if they said "We're now at even cash flow, but have amassed a lot of debt! We don't intend to take this towards profitability, but please help us stay afloat." I might donate 10 or 15 bucks. Not that I expect that to happen either :-)

[ Parent | on HN ]