Sen. Orrin Hatch legitimately does not understand how social media makes money
Sen. Hatch: "If [a version of Facebook will always be free], how do you sustain a business model in which users don't pay for your service?"
Mark Zuckerberg: "Senator, we run ads." https://t.co/CbFO899XlU pic.twitter.com/bGKWks7zIk— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2018
During that same 2018 hearing, in what could possibly be the most obvious answer for anybody, even those not regularly involved in the tech-sphere.
Sen. Orrin Hatch asked about Facebook’s status as a free website, to which Zuckerberg responded that, indeed, the site would always be free.
Then the senator asked a question that made Zuckerberg talk to the man like he was a 3-year-old.
“Well, if so, how do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?” Hatch asked, to which the CEO blinked like a fish, then responded, “Senator, we run ads.”
“I see, that’s great,” the senator replied. “Whenever a controversy like this arises, there’s always the danger that congress’s response will be to step and over-regulate. Now, that’s been the experience that I’ve had, in my 42 years here.”
As if there wouldn’t be any need to regulate a company that was selling data to political actors, which is half the reason why Zuckerberg was sitting in front of them in the first place.
