I'm skeptical about the "pay to suppress ads" business model in that the people who will pay for an ad-free or ad-reduced subscription might represent an outsize proportion of the value that could be earned through advertising.
Blame the lopsided allocation of wealth or the fact that some people are really cheap, but paying a few extra dollars a month to not see ads qualifies you as somebody who might pay a few dollars a month for something, and not paying it qualifies you as somebody who never will.
If you've ever watched daytime TV it is almost shocking how everything advertised (except for an occasional ad for a car dealer) is not something you pay for with your own money. It is frequently about government benefits, frequently a scam, or for personal injury lawyers. (I guess they have to advertise cars because if someone didn't buy a car you couldn't get hit by a car and call William Mattar.)
The web is always a click away from being that kind of subprime advertising environment, and if anybody with money can escape it that is what it will become.
The 50% ad load might be a good idea if Twitter can convince advertisers to pay extra to reach this market. Thing is they have to prove that Twitter Blue subscribers will buy something that isn't fake vaccination cards, either that they have to get the fake vaccination card vendors to really pay up.
> If you've ever watched daytime TV it is almost shocking how everything advertised...
Daytime ads are for people who do not work a 9-5, most prominently the retired and others who cannot work. Placement ads are much preferred to targeted ads.
> I'm skeptical about the "pay to suppress ads" business model...
It is certainly a subset of all users, depending on the platform. Netflix it is the majority, YouTube it is the minority.
I think the point is, if I can pay you to not show me ads, and in return you can cover your costs plus some profit, then we have a mutually beneficial deal.
If twitter can become sustainable without ads, then who cares what the advertisers want or think or if I don't click on an ad and buy something?
I want no ads, not less, which is not even part of the deal yet, tho supposedly coming.
We around here know the finding product-market fit takes time and will not happen on the first try.