Much debate in regards to how to monetize internet traffic and the online environment has raged since broadband made internet access fast and much more widely available at the beginning of this century. From the New York Times down to CameronCowan.net (and everyone in between, across all mediums) has struggled to make the hours and manpower it takes to create quality content pay off online. The journey has not been easy. Media companies who were used to controlling access to content and how people accessed suddenly were at the mercy of programmers in California with laptops lounging on bean bags. Media had always been at the mercy of advertising revenues, but now, instead of going for soft terms like, “branding” and “exposure,” advertisers were leaping at online platforms and their superior trackability of almost every move its customers made online as well as remarketing opportunities to remind people to buy products after looking. Then came social media with its ability for pictures, videos, and other content to go “viral.” Pretty soon most of the developed world was online (with the developing joining) and suddenly it was a content free for all! Then, pile on piracy, cable cutting, streaming, online radio, and other ways of sharing valuable content and the internet was growing into an information and content bonanza unlike anything ever seen since the printing press. But there was one clinker: revenue.

A Free Network

When the internet was first concepted it was a fast way for the Pentagon to communicate with all its bases and commands and move information quickly from place to place. When the internet sprung up in the realm of academia as a way for scientists and others to share information quickly and easily the a network of information that was free and easily accessible appealed to those within Academia in the 1970s who faced cumbersome methods of sharing books and journals that involved loan programs and funding hurdles. An electronic means would dramatically reduce costs and make it so researchers could consume information to help their research at an ever faster rate. The idea of an information network that was open and most importantly free was already permeating the consciousness.

In the early days of the World Wide Web everything offered online was free and to those with dial-up internet connections, whatever you wanted was offered up for free. For some, it was a place to put up subversive content or other things that wouldn’t ordinarily get published in the mainstream press of the 90’s. This attitude of, “It’s online so it must be free” was further reinforced when the amount of content began to explode. If someone put a paywall or asked for money you simply went somewhere else for something similar or, as was often the case, the same content. When you charge for a physical product, people understand that there are costs that have to be incurred in order for that product to appear. However, when the product doesn’t physically exist there is no tangible evidence of a cost and that lack of tangible cost has plagued the internet, until now.

Time to Pay Up

In our age of the “Internet of Things” where a once intangible network of information is permeating every part of our lives, the internet has made the transition from abstract binary numbers to very real things. I can sit on my iPad at 2 am and order something from Amazon or Target and have it to my house in days or fetch it from a store the next day. In some cases, people turn on their coffee pots, monitor their household climate, and watch their dog/kids/nanny from a camera through their devices.

What does this mean for content?

It means it’s time to pay up. It’s the only way the “Freemium” model gets off the ground.

Don’t worry, I’m not putting up a pay wall or starting a membership service any time soon, but that is where the internet is going. You get a little something for free and if you want more something you have to pay up for that more something. This model is going to continue to explode because the internet has to do the one thing it was intrinsically and fundamentally made not to do: pay for itself.

Let’s face it, the internet is now more than a network of information or an academic playground. It is the infrastructure that makes modern civilization possible. From Smartphones to emergency services and a variety of functions in between, the internet powers our lives in more and more ways. Soon, you will be able to order household essentials with the push of a button to the manufacturer (see the Tide laundry button) almost like the Jetsons of the 60s. This network cannot survive without significant monetization of the products and services that it make possible and ad revenue just isn’t going to cut it anymore. The internet has grown beyond the wildest imaginations of its creators and now, as one of the backbone pieces of the economy, needs to become a proper service.

It’s time for the internet to grow up. Everything goes through a maturation process and the internet is at that point. More and more, the internet provides value to our lives and that value has to be paid for in order to continue its existence. This isn’t a plea like Tidal to “please pay to support your favorite artists” this is the harsh reality of how much absolutely amazing things we are able to do thanks to this network and how much value that provides. In order for the economy to keep going, in order for this lifestyle to continue, money has to change hands and that is just the hard truth, even for smaller publishers like myself.

R.I.P Free internet, it was nice knowing you. I know I’ll miss many of the free things I’ve taken advantage of for so many years and I know that exciting new things will spring up on its platform and let’s hope that it eventually leads to a way for some of the original idea to be realized.