Re:Vivaldi co-founder: Advertisers 'stole the internet from us'
by ehsankia on Sunday March 12, 2023 @11:34AM
(#35121288)
Exactly. I think given the choice of having a free experience with ads vs the subscription model, the majority of people would pick the former.
This model won because this model works best. The hardest part is getting users, and as you say, ad-model is low friction. Most people won't subscribe to thousands or random small sites.
Personally, I want it to continue to be free because:
* It's very low friction: you can go from site to site without needing to provide payment details, sign up, or consider whether a sites per pageview charge is reasonable.
* It lets everyone participate. If you have some form of paying money for content then I expect that amount gets set high enough that it excludes a large fraction of the population.