For sure. I have concepts written down for things like a social network where the user retains ownership of their data and advertisers can offer them money for access to it. There are partial concepts out there like this but the biggest issue preventing me from creating a prototype is simply that I don't think I have the time to nurture a social network into being (which is probably harder than creating the thing). You need people on it to gain other people, a real chick and egg problem.
I still want to build the prototype. But, in trying to be realistic, I don't think it'll become a business or even popular.
I’ve got tons of pages written for a similar concept, only you pay for it. Just as filters were the utility that drove the users which created the network for early Instagram, I think data ownership can be the utility that drives users for a for-pay social network.
This [0] kickstarter is trying to do a paid network, but I think they’ve over complicated it.
I still want to build the prototype. But, in trying to be realistic, I don't think it'll become a business or even popular.