(Economist) Pricing free internet services
Interesting article on how to price the cost of free internet services like Facebook and Google, some of the largest capitalized companies in the world. As we barter our data for free services, the government looses out on that tax, as minuscule as it would be, as bartering between services is illegal (a lawyer can't trade her service for a plumber fixing a pipe) unless they list the value of their barter and pay the tax. And what is FB worth to you? (Not so much to me as a I rarely use it.) They make $20 annually on you but research shows it is worth $750 per month to the people who use it regularly. Living in Japan I regularly use Google Translate and Maps, how much would I pay for this free service? Maybe $0.02 per transaction on the condition that they can't use my data (or $1.00, it is so hard to calculate). It seems like they are getting the better deal. Too bad there aren't any transparency laws that require all of these companies to say how my data is used and who is using it. Then perhaps they could pay me in order to do so.
(Originally published on LinkedIn, 2017-09-17)