Would you pay for your favorite free apps??

Saw a fun study in my inbox this morning and thought I’d play along 😉

Maybe one day companies WILL charge us for some of these apps?!

Have you ever considered the value you place on your favorite free apps? Many services remain free thanks to advertising. But what if things changed?

…In a recent study, we set out to measure the value regular users placed on 16 of the most widely-used apps, asking respondents what they’d pay if a subscription fee was required. They had the option to say they would pay nothing and discontinue use, without access to a free alternative.

Here were their results:

So basically the least amount of people would pay for Facebook, haha, and the most would pay for WhatsApp. With YouTube coming in with the most people would pay for an app and Yelp falling all the way at the bottom.

Surprising? Maybe a little… I’d think Google Maps would be at the tippy top considering what an INSANE tool it is for most of us, but maybe people would rather pay for other similar apps like Waze? Also interesting to see Reddit score so high, along with Google Translate?! I honestly don’t know anyone who uses translate much, no less who’d be willing to pay for it…

At any rate, here’s what I’d pay for each if ever asked (and I haven’t been ;)):

Youtube — $0.00
Google Maps — $10.00/mo, maybe more?
Google Drive — $0.00
Facebook — You’d have to pay ME!!!
LinkedIn — $0.00
FaceTime — We don’t have that for Android
Reddit — $0.00
Venmo — $0.00
Instagram — $0.00
Facebook Messenger — $0.00
WhatsApp — $0.00
Twitter — $5.00/mo
Google Translate — $0.00
Pinterest — $0.00
Snapchat — $0.00
Yelp — $0.00

So basically I only use two of the 16 enough to really want to pay for them. And a quick glance on my phone would pluck out a few more that I’d happily pay to continue using as well:

My banking app (USAA) – $5.oo/mo
Amazon app – $3.00/mo
Ebay app – $2.00/mo (don’t judge!)

So looks like I’d be out an additional $25/mo – or almost exactly what I pay for service to begin with! – if apps ever started charging, haha… Not the worst, but not preferable either 😉

Really makes you think about all the crap you have on your phone though and what you truly “need” vs what you don’t… Remember the time when phones literally only made phone calls??!! (You shut your trap if you don’t! ;)) I like to think of it as the Zack Morris era! Haha…

At any rate, interesting things to think about as you never know how the app world will play out over the years… Seems to be doing pretty well as is, but money does a lot of things to people!! And as the survey shows, we’re pretty addicted enough to pay for this stuff!

You can see the full results via McGuffin here if you’d like: Research Shows How Much Value Consumers Assign to Various Apps. They also detail how much $$$ these apps would make if they did ever implement some of these charges – pretty wild…

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PS: You know what I DO think is coming sooner than later?? A dumb phone revival!! You’re starting to see it pop up here and there in blogs and “hipster talk”, and I wouldn’t be surprised if more of these companies start pumping out some sleek minimal phones to help people simplify more and cut out all the clutter… I’d be interested in testing it out at least and seeing if I have any hope left! 🙂

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from Finance https://www.budgetsaresexy.com/would-you-pay-for-your-favorite-free-apps/