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Bluesky teases paid subscription, Bluesky+, in new mockup
(techcrunch.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
One of the big problems with the 2 tier system you describe, is the most valuable users to advertisers are the ones with the type of money to pay for a subscription to not see ads. So by having an ad free version, you are devaluing your platform to advertisers. I'm not saying the 2 tier system can't work, it does for plenty of things, but it is why a lot of websites don't offer it, or avoid it for as long as possible.
This isn't really much of an issue, practically speaking. The likelihood of someone buying a subscription is different than buying a product from an ad.
For instance, while I'm highly likely to pay for a subscription to a streaming service that lets me watch videos from creators (in my case, Nebula) I'm not likely to buy any products from a sponsorship or YouTube ad. (and haven't, thus far)
My likelihood of paying for a product in an ad is entirely separate from paying for the service those ads are on, and this is commonly true for many people.
If there's an independent news outlet I want to support, I'm going to feel more inclined to pay them than I am to buy a product in an ad, just because each carries different incentives for me. I want to support the news outlet, I don't want to buy a product somewhere else.
This is anecdotal, and I understand that, but as someone else had also mentioned before, even companies like Netflix are promoting their revenue from the ad tier, and having both is a good mechanism to keep the business afloat and allow it to acquire customers who don't want to spend too much.
Where have you heard about that?
I can think of a counter example in how Netflix is boasting about the revenue of its cheaper ad tier.