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I’ve used Telegram for years now, along with almost all my family and friends. I’m a huge fan of it, and it’s basically the only IM I use anymore (other than Si

I’ve used Telegram for years now, along with almost all my family and friends. I’m a huge fan of it, and it’s basically the only IM I use anymore (other than Signal with some tech friends). If Telegram adds ads, rather than offer us a chance to just pay them, I’ll delete it instantly and push everyone I know to do the same. I absolutely despise ads of any kind, and go to a decent amount of effort to block them from appearing on any device in my household. I’m totally happy to (and do) pay for useful services/content but if you don’t give me the choice of paying and just stick ads in it then it’ll disappear off my devices instantly.

davidweatherall 6y ago
Are you happy with services that have ads, but give the option to remove them for a subscription fee?
- GrinningFool 6y ago
  Not the OP but I'm coming from what sounds like the same place. In theory yes but does the ad SDK used by the app still gather data on me, even though the ads are turned off/app is paid for? Without clear indication that it will not, the answer for me is 'no'.
  - davidweatherall 6y ago
    Cool! Thanks for the reply - so you'd feel much more comfortable with a subscription to opt out of all tracking and ads?
    - GrinningFool 6y ago
      Yeah, if I could reasonably verify that the tracking was not occurring. Unfortunately in today's environment, trust is also an issue.
- fernandotakai 6y ago
  i have zero problems with this kind of monetization. i mean, that's why i pay for youtube and spotify -- i wanna support the services/content creators in some way, but i abhor ads.
  - fakedang 6y ago
    Don't most you tubers and Spotify channels have patreons?
    - fernandotakai 6y ago
      some do and i do pay for those -- but you can't really support every single channel you watch (at least for me, youtube replaced normal tv). so paying for youtube premium gives me an ad-free experience while also helping content creators.
      - skinnymuch 6y ago
        You’re essentially not helping the YouTube creators from the numbers they’ve given on their payout from Premium. It is incredibly small.
        fernandotakai 6y ago
        probably as small as the money they would get if i was watching ads. but instead of watching them with an adblocker, i just use yt premium. as i said, i do pay for my fav creators on patreons, because if i started paying for all of them, i wouldn't have money to do anything else.
        skinnymuch 5y ago
        Ah I think I confused things. I must’ve responded thinking you were one of the people saying Spotify is essentially worthless to artists. Which is true in a financial sense like YT equivalent things, but yeah, you support in other ways.
- bombcar 6y ago
  I prefer to word it slightly differently - have a paid service that offers a free ad-supported version. The danger, of course, is that once you separate it out like that you quickly realize that the advertisers want the paying customers, not the freeloaders and so ads encroach on the he payment plans, too.
- ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
  Absolutely. I gladly pay for YouTube Premium, Subscribe to Twitch streamers I like to remove ads there, and other services that do an ad-supported free tier than a premium ad-free tier. Other replies to me are reading me wrong, I didn't say "I hate ads therefore I believe no one should ever use ads", I said "I hate ads and would happily pay for me to personally not see them". Telegram can fill their apps with ads if they want, for those that can't/won't pay, as long as there's an option for us to pay and not see them.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
fullstop 6y ago
I would not mind them monetizing large public channels or selling sticker packs. If I ever see ads in my 1:1 or small groups, though, that's the end.
ComodoHacker 6y ago
>I absolutely despise ads of any kind Can the business that pays your bills survive without ads?
helsinkiandrew 6y ago
I wonder if you're typical though. Many people will likely be using it along with other IM apps to communicate with colleagues/friends/family and balk at paying even marginal amounts. Perhaps an ad supported model with ad free premium, or free to receive, but pay to send over x messages a month etc. Whatever they decide they'll likely annoy lots of their users.
WilTimSon 6y ago
You're in the minority and pretty much exercising your first-world privileges to dictate what you think the service should do. It's intended to work for everyone across the world, no matter how poor, and I'm 100% sure people from India or Brazil would leave it completely if they had to pay to use the app. Having non-targeted ads and, potentially, premium features that you can pay for is an optimal middle ground for an app of this size.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
maneesh 6y ago
Hulu once wrote about how, by offering a higher cost plan without ads, they removed a lot of the complaints about their service I've always wondered if FB offered a similar option -- $5 or $10 a month to opt out of all adds and tracking -- if a lot of the complaints about their service would also disappear.
- xNeil 6y ago
  Some did the math - the price Facebook would need to charge every user would be $11 a month. Sorry I can't remember WHERE I read it though.
  - dzonga 6y ago
    it's from their quarterly financial reports. rough estimate. for developing markets they generate about 2$ per user. and in developed markets like $7 per user.
  - ign0ramus 6y ago
    That number seems wildly off. Facebook's annual revenue for 2020 was $85.97 Billion[1]. With 2.8 Billion monthly active users, they'd need to charge $3 a month to exceed that number. [1]: https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2021/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Results/default.aspx https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/...
    - slymon99 6y ago
      In the US it's much higher. Many users provide practically no revenue to FB (presumably FB wants the growth for the future). https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/facebook-made-almost-20-average-revenue-per-user-q4-big-jump/ https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/facebook-made-almost-2...
    - xNeil 6y ago
      Found the original article, I hope this helps :) https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/15/would-it-make-us-love-or-hate-ads/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/15/would-it-make-us-love-or-h...
elastolin 6y ago
> I absolutely despise ads of any kind, and go to a decent amount of effort to block them from appearing on any device in my household No one cares, my man. This position is so off the grid that your anti-ad cruzade will likely have 0 impact in the real world.

davidweatherall 6y ago

Are you happy with services that have ads, but give the option to remove them for a subscription fee?

GrinningFool 6y ago
Not the OP but I'm coming from what sounds like the same place. In theory yes but does the ad SDK used by the app still gather data on me, even though the ads are turned off/app is paid for? Without clear indication that it will not, the answer for me is 'no'.
- davidweatherall 6y ago
  Cool! Thanks for the reply - so you'd feel much more comfortable with a subscription to opt out of all tracking and ads?
  - GrinningFool 6y ago
    Yeah, if I could reasonably verify that the tracking was not occurring. Unfortunately in today's environment, trust is also an issue.
fernandotakai 6y ago
i have zero problems with this kind of monetization. i mean, that's why i pay for youtube and spotify -- i wanna support the services/content creators in some way, but i abhor ads.
- fakedang 6y ago
  Don't most you tubers and Spotify channels have patreons?
  - fernandotakai 6y ago
    some do and i do pay for those -- but you can't really support every single channel you watch (at least for me, youtube replaced normal tv). so paying for youtube premium gives me an ad-free experience while also helping content creators.
    - skinnymuch 6y ago
      You’re essentially not helping the YouTube creators from the numbers they’ve given on their payout from Premium. It is incredibly small.
      - fernandotakai 6y ago
        probably as small as the money they would get if i was watching ads. but instead of watching them with an adblocker, i just use yt premium. as i said, i do pay for my fav creators on patreons, because if i started paying for all of them, i wouldn't have money to do anything else.
        skinnymuch 5y ago
        Ah I think I confused things. I must’ve responded thinking you were one of the people saying Spotify is essentially worthless to artists. Which is true in a financial sense like YT equivalent things, but yeah, you support in other ways.
bombcar 6y ago
I prefer to word it slightly differently - have a paid service that offers a free ad-supported version. The danger, of course, is that once you separate it out like that you quickly realize that the advertisers want the paying customers, not the freeloaders and so ads encroach on the he payment plans, too.
ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
Absolutely. I gladly pay for YouTube Premium, Subscribe to Twitch streamers I like to remove ads there, and other services that do an ad-supported free tier than a premium ad-free tier. Other replies to me are reading me wrong, I didn't say "I hate ads therefore I believe no one should ever use ads", I said "I hate ads and would happily pay for me to personally not see them". Telegram can fill their apps with ads if they want, for those that can't/won't pay, as long as there's an option for us to pay and not see them.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

fullstop 6y ago

I would not mind them monetizing large public channels or selling sticker packs. If I ever see ads in my 1:1 or small groups, though, that's the end.

ComodoHacker 6y ago

>I absolutely despise ads of any kind Can the business that pays your bills survive without ads?

helsinkiandrew 6y ago

I wonder if you're typical though. Many people will likely be using it along with other IM apps to communicate with colleagues/friends/family and balk at paying even marginal amounts. Perhaps an ad supported model with ad free premium, or free to receive, but pay to send over x messages a month etc. Whatever they decide they'll likely annoy lots of their users.

WilTimSon 6y ago

You're in the minority and pretty much exercising your first-world privileges to dictate what you think the service should do. It's intended to work for everyone across the world, no matter how poor, and I'm 100% sure people from India or Brazil would leave it completely if they had to pay to use the app. Having non-targeted ads and, potentially, premium features that you can pay for is an optimal middle ground for an app of this size.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

maneesh 6y ago

Hulu once wrote about how, by offering a higher cost plan without ads, they removed a lot of the complaints about their service I've always wondered if FB offered a similar option -- $5 or $10 a month to opt out of all adds and tracking -- if a lot of the complaints about their service would also disappear.

xNeil 6y ago
Some did the math - the price Facebook would need to charge every user would be $11 a month. Sorry I can't remember WHERE I read it though.
- dzonga 6y ago
  it's from their quarterly financial reports. rough estimate. for developing markets they generate about 2$ per user. and in developed markets like $7 per user.
- ign0ramus 6y ago
  That number seems wildly off. Facebook's annual revenue for 2020 was $85.97 Billion[1]. With 2.8 Billion monthly active users, they'd need to charge $3 a month to exceed that number. [1]: https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2021/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Results/default.aspx https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/...
  - slymon99 6y ago
    In the US it's much higher. Many users provide practically no revenue to FB (presumably FB wants the growth for the future). https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/facebook-made-almost-20-average-revenue-per-user-q4-big-jump/ https://www.adexchanger.com/platforms/facebook-made-almost-2...
  - xNeil 6y ago
    Found the original article, I hope this helps :) https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/15/would-it-make-us-love-or-hate-ads/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/15/would-it-make-us-love-or-h...

elastolin 6y ago

> I absolutely despise ads of any kind, and go to a decent amount of effort to block them from appearing on any device in my household No one cares, my man. This position is so off the grid that your anti-ad cruzade will likely have 0 impact in the real world.