Nobody expected such a news
story this week, but it seems that
Facebook will no longer be a free
service.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
has announced at a press
conference in Menlo Park,
California that the company is
unable to keep up with the costs
of Facebook and a
monthly fee for users is
inevitable.
Zuckerberg has explained that
Facebook is growing with
hundreds and thousands of
members signing up each day
and the advertisement system
Facebook currently uses is not
enough to cover all the costs the
social media giant needs to keep
the site running. He also said that
if Facebook continues to remain
a free service, there is the
possibility of it having to shut
down because of the lack of
funding. “After thinking long and
hard about this decision, at the
end of the day, we were forced
to add this monthly fee. If we
don’t do something about our
rising costs now, Facebook could
cease to exist in the near future.”
– said Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook currently has about
1.317 billion users and if just %
75 of those users start paying
the $2.99 monthly fee, the yearly
profit would be about $3 billion.
Astounding.
Reportedly, Paul Horner,
Facebook
spokesperson, said that there
could be a way to waive the
monthly fee for users who don’t
have the money to pay. He said
that even though
Facebook would begin
implementing the new user fee
starting November 1st, they don’t
want to lose their members just
because they can’t
afford to pay the monthly
subscription fee. He said that
users should update their status
with the following statement:
I AM POOR FACEBOOK
PLEASE WAIVE MY MONTHLY FEE
with the #FacebookMonthlyFee
hashtag included.
What do you think? Is Facebook
looking to get a little more
money out of its users? Are you
going to ask them to waive your
monthly fee or do you think
Facebook is worth paying for? [hupso]
