engine - 5:55 pm on Jan 2, 2008 (gmt 0)

A slew of Web2.0 companies will dissolve this year in the face of a "users' revolt" against online advertising, industry expert Mark Anderson has warned. Mr Anderson, chief executive of Strategic News Service, an online newsletter that charts and predicts the fortunes of computing and communications companies, said websites that offer free products in return for targeting users with adverts, such as the social networking sites Facebook and Bebo, will fail at a rate of 9:1.

Advertising May Not Be The Saviour For Social Networking [telegraph.co.uk]

There will always be those that are happy to accept advertising in exchange for a free service. Perhaps the masses are happy with the free service. However, subscription-based models should also survive, and may, infact, become more acceptable.