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This has been tried before and it has failed miserably. Perfect price discrimination does not work because price is a key component of the average person's val

by tsally 18y ago

This has been tried before and it has failed miserably. Perfect price discrimination does not work because price is a key component of the average person's value assessment. I'd be very surprised if it works in the long term in this case.

colins_pride 18y ago
Please cite sources.
apgwoz 18y ago
I think that one of the things he has going for him is he's not in San Francisco, New York or some other metropolis. After reading Doctrow's thoughts on giving away his eBooks which increases dead tree sales, I've been thinking about how this model could apply to web apps. It seems to me that giving people an option of paying what they want for a service up front could potentially work. There's a ton of people who would be willing to pay for the free apps they use. The freemium model seems to work to some extent, but, I haven't heard of anyone attempting the donationium model like many museums use. Sure, people ask for donations, but it's left on the sidebar somewhere. What I'm talking about is making it part of the signup process. Present the user with a suggested charge of $5, and then give them a chance to enter what they want. Accept $0, for those that want to pay nothing and accept more for those that are willing.
- mannicken 18y ago
  IMHO, the model from TFA is based on shame and guilt. When you look owner in the eyes, and there are people everywhere around you, and hot girls, you can't really pay a penny for 3 dollars worth of latte. What do you pay? Well, you don't want to look cheap, but you don't want to give him $100 bill either. So you usually end up taking a five or ten dollar bill out of your pocket as a round number. You pay for creativity+latte+tip, you think. What a creative guy, why not give me $7 or $2 bucks over the latte price? But you do it out of fear of looking cheap and like an asshole. However, on the intertubes, there is no one looking at you. Fuck, you can even use a made-up name! Hence the family breeding to avoid shame by not being cheap goes out of the window since no one sees you as being cheap. I'd really like to see my point proven wrong since I plan to do this kind of payment and I wonder if it's a good way to seggregate market.

by tsally 18y ago

colins_pride 18y ago

Please cite sources.

apgwoz 18y ago

I think that one of the things he has going for him is he's not in San Francisco, New York or some other metropolis. After reading Doctrow's thoughts on giving away his eBooks which increases dead tree sales, I've been thinking about how this model could apply to web apps. It seems to me that giving people an option of paying what they want for a service up front could potentially work. There's a ton of people who would be willing to pay for the free apps they use. The freemium model seems to work to some extent, but, I haven't heard of anyone attempting the donationium model like many museums use. Sure, people ask for donations, but it's left on the sidebar somewhere. What I'm talking about is making it part of the signup process. Present the user with a suggested charge of $5, and then give them a chance to enter what they want. Accept $0, for those that want to pay nothing and accept more for those that are willing.

mannicken 18y ago
IMHO, the model from TFA is based on shame and guilt. When you look owner in the eyes, and there are people everywhere around you, and hot girls, you can't really pay a penny for 3 dollars worth of latte. What do you pay? Well, you don't want to look cheap, but you don't want to give him $100 bill either. So you usually end up taking a five or ten dollar bill out of your pocket as a round number. You pay for creativity+latte+tip, you think. What a creative guy, why not give me $7 or $2 bucks over the latte price? But you do it out of fear of looking cheap and like an asshole. However, on the intertubes, there is no one looking at you. Fuck, you can even use a made-up name! Hence the family breeding to avoid shame by not being cheap goes out of the window since no one sees you as being cheap. I'd really like to see my point proven wrong since I plan to do this kind of payment and I wonder if it's a good way to seggregate market.