i.e. you can't give stuff away for free if you aren't one of the 3 largest companies on the planet

Would you pay $20/month for Hacker News access?

I think it's fair that GA is free and Google gets some benefits from using the data for their ad network.

	▲	AlecSchueler 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		"some benefits" is really underselling it though.
	▲	basisword 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yeah but you're missing the point. Nobody else has the worlds biggest search engine and ad network to allow them to do the same. Others have to charge.