We pay for value. So I’ve come to the realization that I would pay for Twitter.
I wouldn’t pay for Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed or any of the Ning groups I belong to (and I’ve never been a MySpace guy). But I would pay a few dollars a month to continue using Twitter.
All these venture-funded social networks (plus dozens of others) are searching for a sustainable business model. For Twitter, I recommend a freemium model where new users would get to follow 100 people for free, then pay $5-10 a month for the “premium” version that allows unlimited follows.
I pay more than that for DVD movies in the mail. And I get way more value from Twitter.
It only works, of course, if the critical mass of people who use Twitter (4.5 million in December) buck up, too. But later this year, when their venture funding is drying up, I think they have the best shot at a paid model of all the new social networking sites.
Pay for Twitter? I wouldn’t. With an already struggling economy, money’s tight as it is. Why add to those expenses?