> Would people ever pay for a social network.
The answer is YES, and people already pay for social network:
With the evil trends of FAANG+MSFT I see the long term meta-trends that all the free services that are pervasive today including - but not limited to - social networks, will have subscription paid equivalents.
To see present companies doing well in this new broad space: Signal, Purism.
> how can the social network differentiate itself from free alternatives?
3 things: