Facebook Ad Revenue vs Subscriptions

The cluster discusses whether users would pay subscription fees for ad-free Facebook equivalent to the company's current per-user ad revenue from tracking and advertising, often citing specific revenue figures and questioning user willingness.

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ARPU Slides.pdf FB US IF Q316 j.com www.manu TikTok E100 facebook pay ads users fb user advertisers revenue ad advertising

Sample Comments

aros Mar 16, 2015 View on HN

People are paying to use Facebook. Are you suggesting that they aren't?

phyrex Jul 4, 2023 View on HN

I think meta makes much more per customer, and few people would be willing to pay, say, E100/yr to pay for Facebook without ads

vintermann Nov 7, 2025 View on HN

Facebook has made it very clear that they don't want you to do this: you can pay for ad-free (I believe it's because they're legally obliged to offer that as a result of some things they'be done and deals they've made), but the cost is easily 100 times what they can make directly on ads for me. The only conclusion can be that they place an immensely high indirect value on serving me ads.

joering2 Feb 18, 2012 View on HN

no need to -- I will answer you. Its not feasible in FB current situation. IF they make $100 per year per user already on showing ads/tracking/selling/analyzing/whatever they do to make a buck, then going down to $5/month/user and shifting from paying advertiser to paying user would make it a ghost town. Bottom line: I think most people enjoy what they get out of FB even if they data is being used/sold and they are, up to some point, aware of it.

d1sxeyes Oct 30, 2023 View on HN

Facebook don’t have to make 12.99EUR/user.There are two values here: what percentage of people opt for the “ad-free” experience and how much FB makes per user. In fact, as long as their ad revenue per user is LESS than 12.99, this will work out net positive for them.The only way it would be less is if the alternative is “not having Facebook”, rather than “Facebook with ads”.

iammru Jul 31, 2020 View on HN

Pay who?.. Facebook should pay the users as well.

KarlKemp Dec 3, 2021 View on HN

As a general rule, nobody is willing to pay what they are worth to advertisers. Facebook makes 70$ / y / user in the US. You would pay $70 for an ad-free Facebook? Congratulation, you must be an above-average earner. Also: your value to advertisers just tripled. If you are willing to pay $210, it will immediately triple again.

chrischen Feb 1, 2021 View on HN

Facebook makes so much money off of tracking users... why don’t they just start paying us.

marstall Mar 13, 2023 View on HN

maybe Facebook should pay for the products it's using to engage to engage its own users?

kmlx Sep 11, 2019 View on HN

how much money you are paying facebook for using their services?