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Imagine that landline phone calls were initially free and had to be "monitized" via adverts. Or, if it ended up being the case that they couldn't be sufficientl
by throwaway98237 10y ago
Imagine that landline phone calls were initially free and had to be "monitized" via adverts. Or, if it ended up being the case that they couldn't be sufficiently monitized and thus were considered a "failed business model". This age of freemium is producing all sorts of wack products. Why can't I just have a phone company that adds Twitter-like functionality in my paid plan. Oh right, because even though it's all "free" it's all proprietary and incompatible.
- pjc50 10y agoI'm sure the phone company could have built twitter, but it would have cost you $0.1 per tweet and $1 for pictures. The phone companies built quite a lot of innovative stuff early on (e.g Minitel), but it was even more proprietary, incompatible, and monopoly priced.
- throwaway98237 10y agoAnd regulated by the government, so that everyone received service, that was inter-operable, and sustained.