

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GOOGLE OFFERS Your PRODUCT FOR FREE?  - newsign
http://www.fastcompany.com/3018518/dialed/google-just-got-into-your-business-heres-why-that-can-actually-be-a-good-thing

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onion2k
Regarding the "you get what you pay for" argument, in this case what you're
paying Google is not "zero". You're paying them in data - specifically what
they can learn about your email usage patterns. That might well be _very_
valuable to Google, so they'd be happy to give you an awesome product for
"nothing".

The HN mantra of "If you're not paying then you're the product" holds true in
this example.

