Oh absolutely. While I despise advertising for my own personal reasons, I know that there are plenty of people out there who would happily accept a free, ad-based version of these services (assuming it's possible for this model to actually generate enough revenue).

I thought you were going the other way around. There's no reason that we can't have both: Uber could charge us and still show us ads. It works for Comcast.

> Cable's initial idea was TV without ads. Now all you see on Cable is ads.

Whenever I see people that believe that ads vs paid is a either/or proposition, I utter "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it". It is much more likely that Uber will both charge and display ads; than to give people alternatives on how to fund their ride.

I am old enough to actually remember cable without ads. Maybe this is the main reason I feel completely okay with the morality aspects of using ad-blockers or pirating movies/shows I can't get on my region, or even downloading songs and trying to support musicians by actually going to concerts.