Offering your content or service for free implies that you need to rely on an advertising based business model. If you aspire to build a big online media business (say $50m in revenues) you can do it in one of three ways:
1. If youre broad reach, you need to grow to be one of the top 10 websites in the US by traffic
2. If youre demographically targeted, you need to grow to be one of the top 25 websites in the US
3. If you have content that attracts endemic advertisers, you need to grow to be one of the top 150 websites in the US
Analysis and math that gets to these conclusions is at the Lightspeed Venture Partners blog (click on my name in this comment).
jeremy liew on March 13th, 2007 at 12:27 PM
The "business model" for many of these companies is to get acquired before their money runs out. If that is the "actual" business objective, as opposed to the publicly stated one, then FREE is a business model because it allows them to grow more quickly.
On a personal note, I don't think this is sustainable or smart for the long run.
Anne,
Offering your content or service for free implies that you need to rely on an advertising based business model. If you aspire to build a big online media business (say $50m in revenues) you can do it in one of three ways:
1. If youre broad reach, you need to grow to be one of the top 10 websites in the US by traffic 2. If youre demographically targeted, you need to grow to be one of the top 25 websites in the US 3. If you have content that attracts endemic advertisers, you need to grow to be one of the top 150 websites in the US
Analysis and math that gets to these conclusions is at the Lightspeed Venture Partners blog (click on my name in this comment). jeremy liew on March 13th, 2007 at 12:27 PM