this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023

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So how long until the Fediverse is monetized? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by Ryan213@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

145 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm fairly new and don't 100% understand it yet, but instances are run on servers that require money. Are we heading towards seeing ads or subscriptions to raise funds instead of relying on donations to cover overhead?

Especially with the influx of new users. Hardware upgrades are needed.

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[–] SulaymanF@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

The Fediverse SHOULD allow monetization and they don't yet. As per Mark Bayliss:

The problem here is that despite these large and escalating costs, a significant part of the fediverse is intrinsically hostile to anything other than charity or goodwill as a basis for running a server, due to hostility to capitalism as an abstract or just on a general point of principle regarding how web services should be funded. Any instance that runs advertisements to its users is likely to be blocked by any others purely on those grounds. Some instances have tried to introduce subscription fees for joining and have been blocked as a result. Ownership by a corporate entity or accepting funding from one is also likely to wind up with a block.

I'm not saying to commercialize the entirety of the Fediverse but if you want it to actually compete with Twitter and Reddit and Tumblr then you need to open it up further.

[–] millie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 years ago

I could see a legitimate service being made out of something like an extra private lemmy, or a lemmy with additional features. Sort of like you'll see these suites of services from Proton or Nord. Yeah, i can set up my own SMTP server, even encrypt my data, but it's a lot easier to pay a few bucks to have a reliable service do it.

With federated services eventually becoming mainstream, i wouldn't be surprised to see some companies offering packages that do things like provide additional privacy or larger amounts of storage.

Or like I'd imagine sustainable video hosts will have to monetize somehow just to pay for the storage space.

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[–] Chadarius@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Think of the Fediverse much more like Wikipedia than anything else. It is run in donations and volunteers. It is not for profit and for the benefit of all people.

[–] lightrush@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It's already monetised. Just click on the links under Donations in the main sidebar or straight to the OpenCollective page for a glimpse. We pay for it with our money. That's how we know we're not the product.

[–] hedders@fedia.io 1 points 2 years ago

I doubt we'll see ads in the form we know them from places like Twitter and Reddit. We may start seeing instances being sponsored by (or even operated by) businesses, and people can federate with them or not as they choose.

I also think paid subs will be a growth area and honestly this is the model I'd be most comfortable with, although I acknowledge the risk of excluding people who don't have disposable money to spend on such things.

[–] BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

It already is. As soon as something like this is internet facing, you get search companies and now AI companies mining data to use for commercial applications.

In terms of the sites themselves though, it'll vary and depend. As it grows in populatity, there will be monetised content in plain sight (think all those secretly sponsored and advertising posts on reddits used to try and push products subtly - the bigger the user base, the more attractive it is to target users with hidden advertising), and then there will be what the servers do themselves. Some may exist on donations, but others may chose to try to place adverts, others may go for subscriptions.

Ultimately there does need to be money coming in from somewhere to keep the services going. There are many free success stories: Wikipedia continues to be free, without adverts, thanks to donations from users and sponsor organisations. Mozilla continues to produce a free open source browser through a mix of donations, sponsor organisations, and paid search deals. Linux is a huge free open system, with a mix of donations, sponsor organisations and commercialisation of the ecosystem.

There isn't really a reason why social media can't also be "free" for consumers, but we don't know yet how that will play out. On traditional social media, the user is the product - our data is mined, we're marketed at, we're advertised at, our data is sold on. The fediverse breaks alot of these methods - or more accurately it opens up these methods to everyone as anyone can access much of the data, removing the value companies have in monopolising and gate keeping the data. It's a double edged sword, but be in no doubt even in the fediverse companies can and will monetise whatever data they can get their hands on.

[–] lillie@pawb.social 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The Fediverse will never be monetized. It's open by nature, instances are maintained by donations and out of the administrator's pocket. Why? Because they have a passion for it.

Even if someone chooses to monetize one instance, people will move to another that isn't monetized. It's free and open by design, and will always be that way.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I’ll bet money that multiple people will successfully monetize parts of it.

At the very least, my guess is some small shops will build businesses around apps that offer enhanced users experiences, but for fees. I’d be willing to pay for premium experiences that were well maintained.

[–] lillie@pawb.social 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

And if they somehow manage to do that, people will download their data and move to another instance or spin up their own, and they'll get the exact same content. It's the open nature of the Fediverse, it's impossible or at least incredibly difficult to monetize.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Time will tell. People seem to be pretty down to support devs and studios that are using the money to enhance the user experience and pay the developers fairly. Apollo, Twitterific, Tweetbot, etc. lots of good examples of this.

[–] simple@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Realistically every instance can monetize in whatever way they see fit but I highly doubt this'll be a thing. Mastodon is way bigger and more expensive than Lemmy and it runs just fine through donations. No reason why the same won't work here.

Lemmy itself is also likely to follow in Mastodon's path by getting money from sponsorships and fundraisers. See https://www.investopedia.com/how-mastodon-makes-money-7482865

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