

How Online Companies Get You To Share More & Spend More - joelrunyon
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/06/ff_gamed/all/1

======
simonsarris
I'm surprised they talked about Zynga but didn't touch upon the model of "Free
+ Microtransactions", which has been all the rage in Korea/China for several
years and is definitely on the rise in the United States. That seems to be the
real "spend more" part.

The remarkable thing about Farmville isn't merely about people spending more
time to play the game once they're time-invested, but more-so about getting
people to willingly spend _real dollar bills_ on a game that is free once they
are at a certain point of time-investedness.

I hesitate to invoke a comic to illustrate a point, but I think this one fits
quite nicely:

<http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/6/10/>

~~~
joelrunyon
I think they're interconnected. Once people feel like they're "time-invested"
in a game, they're much more willing to be financially invested in the game.
The time investment warms them up and turns them into prospects much more
willing to spend _real_ money on the game they're already heavily invested in
with their time.

------
hariis
How are they getting us to "share more", as the title says?

~~~
joelrunyon
The last three examples, Zynga, Groupon and Facebook all have instances where
users are rewarded or incentivized to share more.

------
revorad
Or how psychology and behavioral economics professors get you to buy more of
their books.

------
Helianthus
Meh. Amazon's services are _good value_; there's nothing particularly
psychological (read: manipulative) about providing something people want.

Given that we have to buy stuff, it turns out that paying 80 bucks a year for
2-day shipping is really worth it.

There's a popular 'narrative' about psychology 'exploiting' us, when a lot of
these mechanisms are just completely fair methods of exchanging value in cash
for value in product.

~~~
Tichy
What confuses me is that where I live (Germany) packages usually arrive within
2 days anyway, yet Amazon still tries to sell that premium package. I even
know somebody who bought it. Why?

~~~
joelrunyon
You'll have to ask your friend, but if Amazon can sell something for $80, you
can bet they'll sell it to whoever wants to buy it...regardless of whether or
not it makes logistical sense to do so.

