How much money does Facebook/Google/MSFT/etc. make off of me as a user?
June 6, 2020 6:22 PM Subscribe
How much money does Facebook/Google/MSFT/etc. make off of me as a user? Let's say I don't pay money for a subscription or buy ads or use a premium version or anything but I do use Facebook, Gmail, Edge, etc. How much do I generate in revenue for these companies just by using their "free" apps/services?
Keep in mind that the annual revenue per user figure is just what you get if you divide total revenue by the total number of users. It doesn't mean that if you stopped using Facebook they would make $41 less next year. How much a company makes from you personally depends mostly on how many ads you see and click on. If you click on ads they make more money. They may also charge advertisers just for showing you an ad (even if you're using an ad blocker so you don't see it.) So if you spend a lot of time on their sites, viewing many pages, you make them more money than if you just visit the sites briefly and occasionally. If you're using something like Gmail or Edge that isn't showing you ads and that you didn't pay for I don't know that your individual use is contributing to their revenue at all.
posted by Redstart at 7:08 PM on June 6, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Redstart at 7:08 PM on June 6, 2020 [3 favorites]
You could work out averages but for any one individual user the answer is going to be really variable.
For a high net worth individual with an interest in expensive things like second houses or sports cars, possibly $200+ per year.
For a much poorer person with obscure interests that don't involve spending money that could be less than $10 per year.
A surprising amount of the revenue comes from Business Intelligence rather than advertising, I read a few years ago that Ebay were making more money selling BI data than from transaction fees. You only pay transaction fees for things you buy, but the BI data includes everything you look at.
This is also why media companies largely tolerate ad blocking, even when you block ads they still record all your activity, tied to an email address and IP address/location and that data has value.
posted by Lanark at 4:05 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
For a high net worth individual with an interest in expensive things like second houses or sports cars, possibly $200+ per year.
For a much poorer person with obscure interests that don't involve spending money that could be less than $10 per year.
A surprising amount of the revenue comes from Business Intelligence rather than advertising, I read a few years ago that Ebay were making more money selling BI data than from transaction fees. You only pay transaction fees for things you buy, but the BI data includes everything you look at.
This is also why media companies largely tolerate ad blocking, even when you block ads they still record all your activity, tied to an email address and IP address/location and that data has value.
posted by Lanark at 4:05 AM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
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I don't believe other Google/Microsoft publicly provide per user revenue in the USA.
posted by saeculorum at 6:27 PM on June 6, 2020 [5 favorites]