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> Software is so saturated that people are starting to regard the majority of it as free. This doesn't match my experience at all. To me it seemed that through

> Software is so saturated that people are starting to regard the majority of it as free. This doesn't match my experience at all. To me it seemed that throughout the 00s both consumers and small businesses were unwilling to pay anything for the cloud software, but tide has definitely turned. Now, all smart small companies I know don't blink an eye to spend hundreds of dollars per month for various cloud subscriptions and consumers are starting to pay for software both on mobile devices and cloud SaaS.

nostrademons 11y ago
I get the sense that small-business SaaS companies can usually charge (after a short free-trial period), but consumers are still very reticent to pay for software. There are some services that are the exception (eg. Spotify/Netflix), but generally those are industries that were very large before software came along, and they replace incumbents (eg. RIAA/cable) that people used to pay for as well.
- dirtyaura 11y ago
  Yes, consumers are much more willing to pay for content-driven services - after all they are mostly consuming, not creating. But if you observe niches and prosumers (who are creators), they are already paying for software. And niches can be huge on global scale: think about running, cycling, gym training. Or pets, dogs, horses. Investing. Knitting. Photography. You are totally right that they are currently much more reticent to pay for software than businesses but based on my anecdotal observations, I think that the trend line is growing and accelerating. I also think that for consumer businesses, you have to be a bit more creative with your monetization models. Cost/benefit calculation of subscription model is an easy task for small businesses, but consumer spending has always been much more erratic in the physical world also, thus subscription models are not necessarily the best fit for consumer space.
- Illniyar 11y ago
  Consumers pay for software all the time - games, outlook/office, dropbox, phone apps. (And if you put netflix on the list, then tons of content such as ebooks, music, paywalls and such are bought all the time) We tend to dismiss these because they aren't bigshot modern startups. Consumers don't buy alot of services, since frankly most have good free alternatives, but they buy software that sits on their hardware and they buy content.

nostrademons 11y ago

I get the sense that small-business SaaS companies can usually charge (after a short free-trial period), but consumers are still very reticent to pay for software. There are some services that are the exception (eg. Spotify/Netflix), but generally those are industries that were very large before software came along, and they replace incumbents (eg. RIAA/cable) that people used to pay for as well.

dirtyaura 11y ago
Yes, consumers are much more willing to pay for content-driven services - after all they are mostly consuming, not creating. But if you observe niches and prosumers (who are creators), they are already paying for software. And niches can be huge on global scale: think about running, cycling, gym training. Or pets, dogs, horses. Investing. Knitting. Photography. You are totally right that they are currently much more reticent to pay for software than businesses but based on my anecdotal observations, I think that the trend line is growing and accelerating. I also think that for consumer businesses, you have to be a bit more creative with your monetization models. Cost/benefit calculation of subscription model is an easy task for small businesses, but consumer spending has always been much more erratic in the physical world also, thus subscription models are not necessarily the best fit for consumer space.
Illniyar 11y ago
Consumers pay for software all the time - games, outlook/office, dropbox, phone apps. (And if you put netflix on the list, then tons of content such as ebooks, music, paywalls and such are bought all the time) We tend to dismiss these because they aren't bigshot modern startups. Consumers don't buy alot of services, since frankly most have good free alternatives, but they buy software that sits on their hardware and they buy content.