Mind Readings: Paid Services That Should Be Included

In this episode, let's talk about a different and new phenomenon that we're seeing with uh public social networks and with other uh SaaS-based services. So you may have seen recently in the uh in both on Facebook and on Twitter that these companies are now starting to offer uh more paid services or more things included with paid memberships that come across as kind of kind of almost not scammy, but definitely poorly thought out. So this past week, Twitter started sending notices to people who have two-factor authentication turned on their accounts, saying that two-factor authentication would only be available to paying members uh on the Twitter Blue membership. Now, if you recall, two-factor authentication, which is where you have a password and then something like a SMS message or an authenticator app or whatever, is a way for uh you to make your account more secure on the premise that even if someone compromises your password, if they don't have the app or they don't have access to your uh text line, they cannot access your account. And it's a very commonplace system of authentication.

It's a very good system of authentication that does dramatically improve security. And it is ironic that the uh the new management at Twitter would make a judgment like this that a core security feature designed to reduce fraud, designed to reduce uh accounts being compromised and botted, etc., would get moved behind a paywall when said new management was talking not so long ago about the problem with bots and things on Twitter as a justification for not wanting to go through with the deal. So clearly, this is not a uh a management that is used to consistency of message, but they're not the only ones. This past week, Facebook announced that they were rolling out the meta verified program as well, where for $15 a month you could get uh the blue check mark on your profile, enhanced security features, and so on and so forth. And both of these platforms announcing these services, it's understandable why someone would be doing this.

After all, uh as advertising dollars soften, which we saw in the fourth quarter on several earnings calls, these companies are naturally looking for more revenue. And what better source of revenue than to get people to pay for your services directly. This raises an interesting challenge, though, because for the longest time it has been something of a truism that if you are not paying, you are the product, right? Um if you are participating on social media, uh you are the product that is sold to advertisers. And now you are still the product being sold to advertisers.

Uh in Twitter in its uh Twitter Blue uh benefits statement says that you will see 50% fewer ads, but you will still you are still being sold to advertisers. And of course, Facebook has uh announced that these measures don't improve you know your account performance or anything, they're only for security and uh validation that you are you are who you say you are. And so it now creates this interesting conflict of interest where yes, you are the product, but you are also the customer. And it remains to be seen how widely adopted these these measures are. When you look at another service, say like YouTube Premium, where YouTube Premium, you buy essentially no ads.

You you you buy that so that you don't see advertising anymore at all. And that's on a per account basis. So if you happen to have several YouTube accounts, you will still see ads on your other accounts. You have to buy it for each account if you don't want to see ads. Same is true for Spotify.

If you pay for the upgrade, you get no ads. And so I think of people would be watching in with close uh interest to see how many consumers choose these options. The reduced ads, or just the blue check mark as a almost a status symbol, does have some weight with some consumers, but not with all of them. More to the point though, it is concerning from a data security perspective that a service would essentially sell something that keeps that service safer. When you think about it, it is inherently in that service's best interests to keep their platform secure.

But by moving security behind a paywall, they are effectively saying we are okay with a certain percentage of users being less safe because they're not paying customers. But even if you are paying, you are still not a premier customer, right? You're still not entitled to the benefits that other paying customers on other platforms receive. So what do we take of this? What do we make of this?

One, if you haven't already, it's probably time to look at other platforms, right? Look at a platform like Mastodon. Look at a platform, uh any of the other platforms that are being developed that would be alternatives to the mainstream social media sites. Look at private social media. Uh go look at Slack at Telegram at Discord, uh Discord in particular, because Discord's revenue model is super clear.

Uh Slack's revenue model is super clear. Right? Slack charges you per seat. There's no ads at all of any kind. Same is true on Discord.

You know, uh, you you pay for your Nitro subscription, um, but there's no ads, period. You you pay for Nitro because you want to use more emoji and have you know to upload uh larger files. As public social networks and many tech companies in general start realizing that basic economics still applies to them and they have to make up money where they can, that will naturally push consumers who are not used to paying for these things to different services where the economics are are pretty clear. You know what you're getting when you buy it, and you know that you're some stuff like basic account security is built right in. In fact, uh I was seeing I saw the other week that for certain accounts I know on HubSpot and on Slack, uh, and I believe on Discord now too, depending on server by server, you're required to have two fire two-factor authentication just to be able to use the service uh for those sensitive situations.

So the takeaway is beware of these public social media companies, right? They still have absolutely no interest in you other than uh how much money they can make on you, and their lack of care and their lack of uh security overall and their willingness to essentially uh almost blackmail you for basic account security should be a good indicator that it's time to move on. It's time to move on from them and and go to greener pastures where you and I, as consumers, are more respected. Thanks for tuning in. We'll talk to you soon.

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