6 ms·

Chris Anderson's article on Free in Wired is six months old but probably a good reference if you haven't seen it: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-0

Chris Anderson's article on Free in Wired is six months old but probably a good reference if you haven't seen it: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?curre... I guess his book isn't out yet but it looks like he's blogging about free @ the long tail: http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/ http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/

netcan 18y ago
Actually, I had read that article but forgot about it. It's probably where I got my description of the model. It's a good article. Gives you a feel for the context of all this. I totally agree that free services have gotten a major upgrade as part of the economy & that it makes sense. But on the incentives to service providers, they just list a few: advertising, cross subsidy & freemium. Advertising is an old one. We know that one from the TV/Radio/Magazine world. We also know it's not capable of funding every type of popular free web thing. (Great on Search, less great on Facebook). Cross subsidies - Also pretty straightforward. Real estate site provides tools, Google gets people to like them etc. etc. Freemium, on the other is not as well trodden. Especially if your strict about excluding free samples from the category.