5 ms·
People Want to Pay
- fallentimes 18y ago~1% of people want to pay
- Hexstream 18y agoAnd 81.76% of statistics are made on the spot?
- mynameishere 18y agoI can verify that less than 1 percent of people even click through to the "purchase" page. ADDENDUM: It's worth considering that that same percentage (less than one) also reflects the number of people who leave Starbucks (or whatever) without buying something. Whether web sites can be made more "store like" is perhaps a great task...
- nickb 18y agoI've seen a marketing report from Marketing Sherpa that showed the stats in the same range of 1-3%. And this was for the sites that were focused on a particular product and the traffic was very targeted as well (most coming from AdWords etc). Most people just browse and never reach for their pocketbook.
- kaens 18y agoOf course, the web is almost, but not entirely different from a physical storefront. If someone enters a Starbucks, it is almost absolutely done with the expressed intent of making a purchase (or chatting with a friend who is making a purchase). Not very many people enter a physical storefront (especially not one that sells coffee) if they don't intend on purchasing something. With the web, it's really easy to just stumble on something or check something out without having any intentions on purchasing something. Maybe after a while it will just level itself out - right now the web is like a whole bunch of new niche stores opened up in your neighborhood and you have no idea what any of them are selling.
- whatusername 18y agoI wonder what percentage of people enter a department store, or a video games shop, and leave empty handed.. I'm sure it's higher than 1-3%
- kaens 18y agoI think it would depend on where it was, although I really have no clue. For example, I would expect a video game store in the mall to have a much higher percentage of people not buying anything than an isolated / strip mall store due to the amount of foot traffic that would be entering out of sheer boredom or out of curiosity. Storefronts in a mall come quite a bit closer to being good as a comparison for stores on the web.
- bprater 18y agoConversion rate (browsers / buyers) is a function of the level of interest from the browsers. In markets that I deal with, we can prime a mailing list ahead of a purchase and scale the conversion rate 5%, 10%, 15%. A useful bit to think about: going from 1% to 2% conversion rate on your site is the same as double your traffic. To many people focus on traffic and not on improving their site.
- eru 18y agoPlease elaborate on the second paragraph.
- mattmaroon 18y agoIf by ~ you mean <, then I agree.
- ivankirigin 18y agoThere is a selection bias here, but on Tipjoy, where payment is voluntary ~30% of people want to pay. He is spot on that you need to get it really easy to make it work. That's why itunes does well despite piracy options.
- omakase 18y agomaking transactions super easy and friction-less would definitely be nice, but it doesn't always outweigh the benefits of giving something away free. specifically it makes it harder for goods to reach a wider audience
- froo 18y agobut it doesn't always outweigh the benefits of giving something away free. Exactly, I've always loved the idea of a freemium model as it gives you the best of both worlds, the ability to scale your product uptake exponentially by removing the "penny barrier" but also having a direct method of success by providing extra value to those customers who want it. This is probably the same business model I'll be using for the startup I'm planning to apply to YC with later this year. I'm still looking at some of the numbers for other possible solutions before I make a decision either way, but right now it seems to be a win/win situation. Now if only I could find a reliable co-founder... :(
- Crosbie 18y agoThe copies are free. The music is paid for - by that ~1% of the musician's audience. Don't pay for copies - make your own for nothing. However, you can't make your own music, so pay those who you WANT to make music. It only needs one in a hundred fans to make it worthwhile.
- d0mine 18y agoRelated post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=265196 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=265196
- DenisM 18y agoThere are a LOTS of reviews in iPhone app store that boil down to "I didn't try it, but it's not free so it's crap. Here one star for you, greedy bastard". We'll see how it plays out in the end.
- mechanical_fish 18y agoThat has nothing to do with reality and everything to do with the review mechanism in the iPhone app store.
- mattmaroon 18y agoPeople think they want to pay, and respond that way if you ask them. But, just like polls about minority political candidates, people's words grossly misrepresent their actions.
- william42 18y agoI don't know why you were modded down. The Bradley effect was a very powerful political force. I say "was" because it doesn't seem to be happening with Obama. The most plausible conjecture for why IMHO is robocalls.
- mattmaroon 18y agoGuessing my comment was just misunderstood as racism somehow. We can't say that the Bradley effect is gone for sure until Obama runs against a non-minority. I suspect that he will win, but not by the margin the polls indicate. Will be interesting to see.
- bprater 18y agoI do. I want to pay. I like paying for software apps that small independent software creators make a living with. I know it isn't alot of money, but I know that it makes a real impact on them and their families. And that makes me feel good. And that's why I pay.
- froo 18y agoThats exactly right, I have no problem with shelling out $5-$20 for a little piece of software, even less if its going to an independent developer. When we start talking Microsoft or Adobe prices, from independent developers is when I start feeling a little uneasy. I came across a piece of software several months ago that I kinda liked, but the price tag was $699, I simply didn't like it that much.