Economists calculate the true value of Facebook to its users in new study | Ars Technica

Tbd how much of the >= $1K value is assigned to Bloom County (exclusively available via Facebook)...

""We found that consistently, on average, people would have to be paid more than $1,000 a year to go without Facebook," said Corrigan. It's the connectivity that adds the value, or what economics call network externality. "[Social networks] are more valuable the more people there are who use it, and this is the largest social network in the world." Facebook boasts more than two billion users globally.

The rationales people offered for why they required so much money to quit varied, but usually it was because their livelihood depended in some way upon the service. For instance, one participant relied on Facebook to communicate with their boss about their weekly work schedule. So they were highly motivated to stick with the social network. Those who required less money to quit often were already considering doing so, and even a little bit of cash was sufficient to sway them. "As an economist, I was happy to hear people approaching this fairly rationally," said Corrigan. "They responded to incentives just like we hoped they might do.""

Economists calculate the true value of Facebook to its users in new study | Ars Technica