Fred Wilson weighs in on ad-supported Twitter

Among the many things that make Fred Wilson's blog the best: he posts every day; he gets great comments and engages with his community; and he weighs in on challenges as they surface.

Today he has posted on the renewed, philosophical challenge to Twitter's decision to pursue an ad-based business. The defense Fred advances, and that gets thrashed out in the comments, continues, I think, to largely be framed in terms of the tried-and-true viablity of the free or fremium model. Time again, the argument goes, experience shows that is what people want, that is what allows new services to scale.

Framed as "free," you've predetermined your conclusion because your language has already dismissed the payment or tax exacted from users, in terms of their time, their mind share, the mix of conscious thought and subconscious emotion that is manipulated in order to influence individual motivation.

I can see person after person in the AVC community commenting that they don't mind promoted tweets - can either look right past them or even find them useful! - and I have to acknowledge they may reflect a plurality, or a majority.

Photo: by epha / Flickr.