The distribution of revenue within the Internet ecosystem remains a contentious issue. From time to time, Internet service providers or copyright holders complain that another entity within the ecosystem is usurping value without payment. But analysts at McKinsey also think even application providers might be able to capture more revenue from their applications.

“Free” Internet applications provide about €150 billion ($193 billion) a year in value that consumers otherwise would pay for, according to new McKinsey.com research involving a survey of 4,500 Web users across Europe and the United States, as well as analysis of their willingness to pay for various online activities. Consumers do pay €30 billion ($39 billion) for services such as music subscriptions and gaming Web sites.

In a sense, they also pay for the “pollution” of their Internet experience by intrusive pop-up advertising and perceived data privacy risks, an amount we estimate to be €20 billion ($26 billion) after asking consumers what they would pay to avoid further clutter and privacy concerns, McKinsey says

That leaves a substantial consumer surplus of €100 billion ($129 billion) a year, a total that McKinsey projects will grow to €190 billion ($244 billion) by 2015.

One obvious way application providers can raise additional revenue is to charge more for services using freemium models and other strategies. McKinsey does say there is huge consumer resistance to such tactics, though.

Only about 20 percent of online users pay for some services, and our research shows that expanding the scope of fees to an amount equaling the value of the surplus would reduce usage by as much as 50 percent.

Another strategy would be to ramp up Web advertising. For the moment, Web companies are reaping more in advertising revenues than consumers are willing to pay to avoid them (€30 billion versus €20 billion ($26 billion vs. $39 billion)).

This imbalance suggests that today’s levels of advertising are sustainable and that there could be room for more ads or other monetization plays, such as asking consumers to provide more personal data to access services.

The issue is whether there is a tipping point where their willingness to pay to eliminate pollution would increase so dramatically that business models would shift. In other words, it is conceivable that ads become so annoying users would pay more than the value of the advertising not to see or hear them.