WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services?

I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as content gets curated by those who extract money by giving us the "free" services.

It's simply very inefficient. IMHO we should go back to pay for what you use, this can't go on forever. There must be way to turn everything into a paid service where you get what you paid for and have your lives enhanced instead of monetized by proxy.

This is only true if they introduce them. i.e. FB doesn't have a paid service, but obviously Youtube does.

The problem is Whatsapp is a closed ecosystem so unlike email we can't just buy a provider.

And I do pay for youtube. The experience is well worth it and I'm thankful I can afford it (it's not a lot but many can't).

> This is only true if they introduce them. i.e. FB doesn't have a paid service, but obviously Youtube does.

FB does - “Meta Verified” for $16/month (presumably different depending on locale), but the benefits aren’t very good. (A verified badge, Increased account protection, Enhanced support, Upgraded profile features, Bonus stars and stickers)