Friendster is still free. Of course, Friendster is still in beta. All indicators suggest that Jonathan will turn on pay when Friendster stops being free; these indicators also suggest that he will use a Match.com model and charge people to message those that they’re interested in.
This makes me sad.
As i discussed before, people are dating via Friendster. Of course, once there is pay, those not interested in dating will not have many of the tools necessary to maintain their network in a meaningful way, nor will they see the value in paying to do so. Those who are dating will only pay for one type of dating activity: reaching out to people beyond their immediate network (i.e. 4 degrees and effectively random).
People are still responding to my survey. It’s pretty clear that they view that providing Friendster with data about them and their friends is their contribution. They feel as though they own their data and that they have no reason to pay for abuses of that data.
I have a funny feeling that when Friendster turns pay, its usage will change dramatically and not in a way that will make the network more valuable.
Enter Go_Ogle, a site for searching/navigating FOAF-encoded digital social networks. In particular, Go_Ogle will support searching along paths, Friendster-style, and global querying, Match.com-style.
As a result, the online dating revenue model will shift from subscriptions to advertising.
So you are right to be pessimistic about subscription-based Friendster…
Of course, Friendster could always embrace Go_Ogle, via ‘Powered by Go_Ogle’ search, in which case Friendster would keep 80% of the ad revenue, and likely eliminate the need to charge a subscription fee…
doesn’t all depend on what people have to pay for? Obviously the best situation for the user is free with the data never getting sold. But I’d much, much rather pay a little money then have my data get sold.