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Flickr was profitable even before acquisition with a freemium model. The free version of Flickr is exactly like the paid version except with upload caps per mon
by neilk 15y ago
Flickr was profitable even before acquisition with a freemium model. The free version of Flickr is exactly like the paid version except with upload caps per month.
Dropbox has a freemium model and is probably profitable or on their way there.
One thing both have in common: they are basically giving away disk space. Storage costs are trivial -- we're approaching pennies per GB -- but giving away CPU time or bandwidth is a much riskier proposition.
- dean 15y agoGood examples, but I can't help feeling that there a lot of assumptions about profitability. Dropbox, for example, is a great service, I really like it. Every tech-savvy person I know uses it, but no one I know pays for it. I know this doesn't prove anything, but it makes me wonder if they are making money. Even if disk space is dirt cheap, it's still not free for them. I wonder how many paying users they need to cover the cost of all those free users.