I think it's quite odd that the majority of Internet users don't even question why everything is free.
Discussion
Cognitive dissonance. They know they’re the product. It’s too scary to think about though, anyways, back to TikTok I go.
Lots of reasons. Could be selling data, advertising, or some are just freemium, and some support for 24/7 uptime needs.
Some are VC funded to get off the ground with no business revenue plan yet until user growth.
Not as simple as just 'you are the cost'.
Redhat is free, so is MySQL. Same with Ubuntu. They aren't selling your data or other stuff. They make their money off enterprise projects and support contracts.
Then look at FOSS. Bitcoin core and nostr apps are free....
Just my 2 cents
Software being free that you run on your own hardware is a different story to software running on a companies hardware. The user pays the costs of using it in the case of Bitcoin, Nostr and most FOSS software. In the case of YouTube, Facebook, Google and so on its running on the companies hardware and they do all the storage and upkeep and electricity costs. You are technically correct but the differences are important to acknowledge I think in this case.
Very true.