bobwarfieldIBM has released a fascinating report that heralds what it calls the end of advertising. One of the more fascinating items in the report is the result that 11% of those surveyed would pay a small premium to have a service without advertising. This is something I’ve proposed before, and I believe it would actually result in more revenue for services, not less. A fee as low as $2 per month gives the online service more revenue than your eyeballs are worth. R/W Web estimates this would result in an additional $100M in revenue at YouTube, for example. That’s real money. What’s the downside?
I would be concerned about backlash from advertisers. They may feel this sets a bad precedent and want to boycot services that offer the opt out option. But given the current propensity to pay for clickthroughs rather than impressions, doesn’t it make sense that if I am willing to pay money to remove the advertising the advertisers should move on? It does to me.
Services should start trying this. It’s not a big deal to offer a premium option without advertising and the end result might just be lucrative.
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