[mammalutte]

If users aren't willing to pay $2-3 per month it simply means that they don't value it that much. They can sell ad space, that's fine, but this does not justify all the data abuse simply because they need to turn a profit. Facebook can close doors right now for what I care; other services such as search engines I would pay a monthly fee if I were sure they didn't try to track me to death.

[z3t4]

The market decide the prices. The value of something has very little to do with the price. You can not charge for something if a free alternative exist. The crux is that Google and Facebook are still profitable, even if it's free, so if they used their huge market share in an attempt to increase the price, competitors would pop up and bring the price down. Something being free also lowers the friction to use. A paywall is a barrier to entry.