[nowherebeen]

I think you kind of answer your own question. Social media is just a gossip page on steroids. None of their features are worth paying for; at least, not enough people are willing to pay for it. They realized given showing ads and charging customers, showing ads probably generates 10x revenue for them. Plus, what's to stop another person to offer a free reddit clone?

[gonzo41]

People pay for junk food all the time. Maybe internet companies are being too greedy and they are pricing themselves incorrectly.

Would you pay $2 USD for all of reddit for a year? How many users does reddit have? It'd probably be a lot of money, but not super profitable. Hence they use adds because they won't shift on price.

[rognjen]

They've never tried generating revenue from other meaningful features.

A marketplace would have a very real value for users.

And it would create a much better moat.

[adolph]

Ring, ring. Revenue team, call for you from Cambridge Analytica on line one!