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How much is social media worth? Estimating the value of Facebook by paying users to stop using it

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  • Jay R Corrigan
  • Saleem Alhabash
  • Matthew Rousu
  • Sean B Cash

Abstract

Facebook, the online social network, has more than 2 billion global users. Because those users do not pay for the service, its benefits are hard to measure. We report the results of a series of three non-hypothetical auction experiments where winners are paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for up to one year. Though the populations sampled and the auction design differ across the experiments, we consistently find the average Facebook user would require more than $1000 to deactivate their account for one year. While the measurable impact Facebook and other free online services have on the economy may be small, our results show that the benefits these services provide for their users are large.

Suggested Citation

  • Jay R Corrigan & Saleem Alhabash & Matthew Rousu & Sean B Cash, 2018. "How much is social media worth? Estimating the value of Facebook by paying users to stop using it," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0207101
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207101
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Roberto Mosquera & Mofioluwasademi Odunowo & Trent McNamara & Xiongfei Guo & Ragan Petrie, 2020. "The economic effects of Facebook," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 575-602, June.
    3. Martinovici, A., 2019. "Revealing attention - how eye movements predict brand choice and moment of choice," Other publications TiSEM 7dca38a5-9f78-4aee-bd81-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Leonard I. Nakamura, 2020. "Evidence of Accelerating Mismeasurement of Growth and Inflation in the U.S. in the 21st Century," Working Papers 20-41, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    5. Hunt Allcott & Luca Braghieri & Sarah Eichmeyer & Matthew Gentzkow, 2020. "The Welfare Effects of Social Media," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(3), pages 629-676, March.
    6. Ramazan Esmeli & Mohamed Bader-El-Den & Hassana Abdullahi, 2021. "Towards early purchase intention prediction in online session based retailing systems," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 31(3), pages 697-715, September.
    7. Diane Coyle & David Nguyen, 2020. "Valuing Goods Online and Offline: the Impact of Covid-19," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2020-10, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    8. Guy Aridor, 2022. "Measuring Substitution Patterns in the Attention Economy: An Experimental Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 10190, CESifo.
    9. Greshake Tzovaras, Bastian & Ball, Mad Price, 2019. "Alternative personal data governance models," MetaArXiv bthj7, Center for Open Science.
    10. John Lourenze Poquiz, 2024. "Measuring the value of free digital goods," Working Papers 044, The Productivity Institute.

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