Would you pay for the content you consume on the internet?

Paying for what you see, read and do on the internet, good or bad idea? The current model of basically free access to any content on the internet has definitely impacted on companies such as News Corp, where newspaper earnings have declined at astronomical rates, as a business practice it seems that pay per view for the internet is not only necessary but imminent. Whether it works remains to be seen, personally i believe these corporations have an uphill battle ahead of them as getting users to pay for content that was once free will be pretty difficult and it is shown with the drop in visitors to the times website once they made it pay for access as reported in this article: “Murdoch’s Times Web Visits Drop to One Third as Paywall Starts”.

Another issue that would need to be overcome is the sheer volume of content that is available on the internet. So what would you pay for? Is it worth paying for what is available on the internet right now? Most i have talked to (and by that i mean my flatmates and friends) say they would pay for Facebook but not twitter or bebo. They wouldn't pay for content such as YouTube, newspaper articles, but if they had to they would pay if the content was better quality, and could only be found on the internet to start with.

Another issue that would need to be addressed is the sheer volume of content that is available on the internet, somewhere along the way users are going to find what they need for free, with every website that is locked down by pay only access hundreds more will most likely pop up with free access. It seems that until a suitable business model is found that benefits not only the corporations who want to make money but also takes into account internet users, paying for content on the internet is going to be a difficult issue to solve!