this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2026
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paywall removed: https://archive.ph/xGwsz

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[–] cinoreus@lemmy.world 141 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How interesting their paid tier has no mention of being ad free

[–] Luisp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

ads make them up to $20 a day, they would have to charge $600 a month to equals profits

[–] lemming741@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago

I didn't realize it was that high- im seeing that the average is around $15 a month, but I'm sure there are whales that hit that $600/mo

[–] magnue@lemmy.world 112 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

"subscribing to Instagram Plus ($3.99/mo), Facebook Plus ($3.99/mo), or WhatsApp Plus ($2.99/mo) will gain access to extra features, like profile customization, super reactions, and story insights, among other things."

I'll pass on that.

[–] unitedwithme@lemmy.today 28 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I passed on it a decade ago. Got out when shit was getting bad with ads, memes, and other stuff not actually "social".

[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's the opposite of social. Especially facebook. There are only companies there, no actual people left (except some boomers maybe)

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

My parents are on Facebook every day and so are their friends. I’m pretty sure Facebook is what happened to all the Gen Xers.

[–] br3d@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How very dare you? Gen X is long off Facebook - it's our parents on there, being radicalised by Russian bots

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[–] MinFapper@startrek.website 21 points 2 weeks ago

You didn't mention a lack of ads. They remove all the ads when you subscribe, right?

padme Anakin meme

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Notice almost all of this is outward facing. It doesn't improve your experience, but it gives you a thing that others see. The goal is the same thing as children bullying other children to buy iPhones. They don't know what the product is. They just built in features that tell you if other people aren't using it, so you can make fun of them.

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[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago

profile customizations

So we bringing back MySpace?

[–] gedfromgont@piefed.ca 72 points 2 weeks ago

Welp, time to do the "previously free and basic feature is now moved into paid plan" dance every few months.

[–] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 61 points 2 weeks ago

Good. Kill off this shit sooner

[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 44 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

For a few dollars per month, consumers subscribing to Instagram Plus ($3.99/mo), Facebook Plus ($3.99/mo), or WhatsApp Plus ($2.99/mo) will gain access to extra features, like profile customization, super reactions, and story insights, among other things.

Ah, they're doing the Discord Nitro thing?

[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.org 11 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Does anyone actually use Discord Nitro?

[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

I see surprisingly many on the servers I frequent. It's included in Xbox GamePass now, so I guess that has caused a massive boost to the userbase, too

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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 42 points 2 weeks ago

Pay today to get what MySpace gave for free 15 years ago.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 2 weeks ago

Genuienly hilarious.

You would have to pay me to have an account on any of those apps.

Oh, man, attention/validation addicts are really something.

They monetized human insecurity. Amazing.

[–] bfg9k@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago
[–] pimat@feddit.org 29 points 2 weeks ago

Fuck all the way off with all this subscriptions to finally make this AI shit profitable. It won't work and people don't need all this datacenters. I really hate this timeline and all this billionaire bullshit.

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

People that still use meta

What a bunch of losers

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

network effect is strong

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Considering that's how most cities get info out kinda makes sense people still use it. Not to mention good luck getting little ol' grandma to switch to signal or Lemmy

[–] foo@feddit.uk 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Public institutions would be better using something like Mastodon for announcements. They'd have the option to retain full control over their instance and citizens wouldn't need an account to access it.

Definitely. The problem is the worlds run by corpo fascists and they will do everything they can to maintain their control through tech.

If the right people are in the right positions though it becomes alot simpler to make happen.

[–] Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 4 points 2 weeks ago

No one needs Lemmy. For Signal, just install it on her phone and text her. That's all it takes.

[–] Ithral@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

Getting grandma on signal isn't to hard, Lemmy might be harder

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[–] Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yes! Amazing!

The downfall is finally happening. It is one thing about scraping data from people for free, but most will never pay a cent for it.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 5 points 2 weeks ago

They're charging for premium features, not for basic access to the service.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

People on Facebook after a certain point willingly gave up their name and address to sign up for it; I kinda doubt they know or care about their data being scraped.

[–] FatVegan@leminal.space 4 points 2 weeks ago

I was truly shocked when this happened. I read about it and was like: haha, no one is giving out their real adress and or phone number on the internet. How dumb do they think people are? Oh...

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

Ah, enshittification, my old friend. Here we go again.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

LOLLLLLLLLL SUCK A DICK!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I believe the full phrase is "SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHIIIIIIIIITS!"

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[–] LemmyEntertainYou@piefed.social 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Would anyone seriously pay a subscription for a messaging app? As long as I can send and receive messages that's all the functionality I need and the second they try to charge for that, everyone will jump ship anyway.

I guess Discord Nitro has existed for a while but I don't know a single person who's even considered it, never mind actually subscribe.

[–] Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 5 points 2 weeks ago

Well, I paid 1 euro for Whatsapp back in the day because it was the only option besides SMS and so that 1 euro was way cheaper.

These days I gladly pay a couple bucks for a chat app that everybody uses so that they can pay the bills without selling my data or being funded by a corrupt government.

Which is went to Matrix, but it is hard to get people on the server I host myself.

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[–] unitedwithme@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago

And people will buy it because they're addicted, and will feel the need to get more dopamine by getting what others can't. Feeling unique or exclusive until everybody has it. Then instead of getting rid of it, it'll just have price creep like all other subscriptions until it's $30/mo. You'll only hear complaints about how expensive it got, not the fact they're paying for something retarded in the first place!

I mean, it's terrible they're offering it at all, but there are those dumb enough to pay for it, too. Companies just take advantage of it, and there's nothing to regulate it.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Honestly, if they did this instead of being the data collection, forced fed ads and manipulation machine that they are id think its great. But they're going to be just as evil and now youre paying them which is stupid.

[–] nucleative@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Facebook probably isn't the one to do it. But paid social media, if it worked like social media from 1999, would probably be worth a few bucks a month.

[–] Damage@feddit.it 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It used to be that your ISP included subscription for newsgroups, etc in the connection costs.

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm voluntarily paying for my LW account but the admins don't know whose money transfer belongs to which account.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

Honey! New idiot tax just dropped!

[–] lol_idk@piefed.social 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Absolute genius billionaire move

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

There are an estimated 3 billion MAUs (monthly active users) on FB. Even with a 1% take rate that is still that is still $120M per month or $1.4B/yr.

Just like spam, they only need a small amount to rake in a large amount of revenue.

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago

I been discovering lately that many people in my circles are using Signal. I fucking hate whatsapp and would love to switch to Signal. But this dumb fuck app is too common around here. That is such a relief that these people do have it. Baby steps.

[–] flameleaf@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

You'd have to pay me to use that crap

[–] dextro@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I‘d happily pay a messenger that respects me as a user, even if that only meant not collecting my metadata. I‘d even pay a higher price like 5 bucks a month.

But instead they‘re trying to sell me STICKERS which I can already create myself from any image and care about maybe 2 times a year 😂

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