Free, the most misleading business concept in the world
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One of the first business models that we will add to our business model catalog will be that related to the ‘free economy’. The concept of ‘free’ has already disrupted a number of industries, and no doubt other industries will follow soon. The book industry will probably be one of those, as youngsters are already used to read texts on small screens. In addition, we see the uprise of many E-readers like Kindl. The mixture of both trends, backed by large organisations like Amazon, will create momentum and disrupt the traditional publisher based model.
Discussions on the free business model
How the publishing sector will cope with the upcoming change is difficult to tell, but we can look at other successful examples seen in the last years. The Free! Summit with Chris Anderson will be held in a few weeks, and will go deeper into this topic. Some of the following key questions have already started the discussion:
- How is free changing consumer expectations, and vice versa?
- How can free be part of a sustainble business model?
- When the price is zero, what else do customers value?
- Is free a threat, or a boon, to intellectual property?
- Are there other ways free pays off?
- What about the social benefits?
- Where is free headed to?
Harold from Stuff Channel made the following statement:
Free is the most misleading business concept in the world, because it is predicated on giving something the appearance of value by actively devaluing everything else around it.
Problems? Now many bands give away free music so that people will attend their (still profitable) music events. What happens when some bands start playing free concerts just to sell T-shirts? Will they devalue the concert experience enough to lower the value for everyone? What happens when a band gives away T-shirts and concerts just for a share of the concession stands? It doesn’t end because the concepts of “free” continue to encourage end users to think of things as having no true value.
Free is never free, but it expects a whole bunch of people to work for nothing. Web2.0 is already leaving the building, hopefully free will go with it.
The ongoing discussion on Techdirt as a response to Harold gives an indication of how this business innovation will continue to shake several industries. Whether the outcome will be positive or negative, is something only the future will tell.
More revenue model examples and inspiration:
“”"”Free is never free, but it expects a whole bunch of people to work for nothing.”"”
Some people work for self-achievement, see linux. ? You have quality for free without any virus and without any defective “buy, buy, buy” apply style.
With Fedora for example, they provide industry class linux operating system, with the best virtualisation features currently available on the planet for free. so you can see this article does not apply to any business model. c.f Red Hat Inc and Novell are good examples.
[...] company, which in its turn pays the mobile service provider. Although FREE has been quoted as the most misleading business concept in the world by some, the speed and magnitude of new FREE initiatives should focus our attention on the [...]
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