

The Economics of Giving It Away - fauigerzigerk
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123335678420235003.html

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ALee
Free does make business sense in the web world when advertising was the
primary revenue driver. You cannot sell meaningful advertising without
meaningful inventory, so there is a period where you spend "free" with
meaningful inventory.

The larger question is whether other business models require the same focus on
building a free userbase before implementing the business model. For all those
services that charge, it affects user behavior if you implement too early and
may limit the market size of the product. But on the flip side, sometimes if
you charge, it conveys a sense of value upon the product.

If twitter started charging from the get-go, it would not be as big or as
useful of a service as it is now.

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lgriffith
FREE is as successful as poverty.

