End of the World with free services for everyone?

Some changes that might be slightly less dramatic than ones read from the Mayan calendar, but still have a bit of "tipping point" feel to them:

• Google no longer offers free google apps for small business (and provides a "calculator" to estimate savings realised by the paid version that doesn't seem to produce results in dollars or euros)
• The Instagramgate, which despite the company reverting back to more or less original terms of service, might start to drive home the message "When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product".
• Paywalls are coming back

Costs of the online services are becoming more and more real, the "advertising only" revenue model probably doesn't scale at the same pace as the costs and - perhaps more importantly - online payment systems have made it convenient enough to pay for digital content and services. Once you make the leap and enter the "online store world", it is actually easier to pay the virtual busker online than the real one in front of you!