In what presents as a rapid retreat from previous plans to introduce adverts to status feeds, Facebook has – temporarily at least – halted its plans. The plan was in part a way for Facebook to recover some of the US$19B spent on purchasing the platform through leveraging their 450 million-plus daily users.
A post from the Wall Street Journal has information suggesting that the code alluding to the coming introduction of adverts is no longer present, a fact backed up by other online sources. Further investigation revealed that the team responsible for this pathway of monetization is no longer operational.
The number of users who would be happy for the one dollar per year fee to avoid this must be astronomical. Sadly though, the connected world relies on advertising for money and this is likely to continue in the future. The reality is there’s no such thing as a free app – if you’re not paying for a service you’re using, you’re not a customer – in some form you’re being sold.
