It's interesting to consider Facebook marketing as a game, where the players are brand owners and the goal is to generate revenue by pushing the various buttons Facebook provides.
Until now, Facebook has operated this game on a standard F2P/freemium model, where skilled players can win with enough time commitment, and others can pay for shortcuts. But it turns out it's very hard to make F2P profitable, so now they want to move to a subscription/recurring revenue model. Sounds pretty familiar.
Perhaps I'm being overly meta but once you start looking for this pattern it crops up everywhere.
F2P isn't hard to be monetize at all, its actually a fantastic model for profitability.
Any F2P game (that makes money) would make a fraction of what it actually does if they charged a flat retail price instead. Look at any F2P PC game like League of Legends, or mobile game like Clash of Clans, Candy Crush, etc. They are the top earners, but they earn even more than hit game franchises like Call of Duty.
Its the reason why F2P is becoming more prevalent.
I didn't say F2P is a bad model, I said it's hard to make it profitable. (Every app store is littered with F2P games that never recouped their costs.) A thing can be difficult even when it's the best thing available.
Until now, Facebook has operated this game on a standard F2P/freemium model, where skilled players can win with enough time commitment, and others can pay for shortcuts. But it turns out it's very hard to make F2P profitable, so now they want to move to a subscription/recurring revenue model. Sounds pretty familiar.
Perhaps I'm being overly meta but once you start looking for this pattern it crops up everywhere.