Monetizing on consumer-taste startups

[tomasienrbc]

I hear a lot of complaining about the ways in which consumer-taste based tech companies like Facebook, Klout, or even Google monetize on their products. Most of the criticisms seem to center on the perceived notion that they turn the user into the product, and that's somehow wrong. My question: does someone have a better idea?

[tomasienrbc]

That sounds a little aggressive, but this isn't meant as a call out: I'm legitimately curious. Currently UnThink the "anti-Facebook" claims to have solves these issues, but they STILL make their users their product. Anybody got an idea on how to monetize on consumer-taste based products that doesn't involve making your free users into the product?

[adambarber]

I don't really see the problem with making the user the product. T.V. does it, newspapers do it, radio stations do it. Either a user pays for a service, or they get marketed to. The one variant that I think we'll be seeing a lot more of though, is instead of advertising, more direct affiliate deals.

WordPress.org, as an example, has turned their web-hosting info page into a giant affiliate ad. They provide useful info about where people can host their sites, and get a referral fee for each signup. Moving from CPM to cost-per-action is something that a lot of companies could stand to do.