Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is taking a hard look at whether to offer a paid version of its social media site, which would provide users with an ad-free experience.
The company has been involved in multiple scandals and a change to its business model could help solve some key issues.
First, the fake Russian ads scandal where misinformation was spread through the popular social media site made users skeptical of the site and has since made the company more committed to filtering out fake news and information. Then, more recently and still tied to Russian interference, was the scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, where the data mining company collected personal information on millions of Facebook accounts.
All this has landed Facebook in hot water with its users and even had CEO Mark Zuckerberg face questions from Congress as concerns about privacy began to weigh on consumers.
As a result, it may not come as much of a surprise then that Facebook might consider a paid version for those users that are concerned about fake ads or about protecting their data. In its latest earnings call, COO Sheryl Sandberg stated that “We certainly thought about lots of other forms of monetization including subscriptions, and we'll always continue to consider everything.”
A subscription-based model would put less pressure on the company to have to rely on ads for revenue, nor would information need to be shared in order for Facebook to finance its otherwise free services.
The big question, however, is how much users would be willing to pay for an ad-free experience, and what, if any, other products or services users would benefit from.
