Would You Pay for Online Applications?

A few days ago, CenterNetworks asked whether anyone would pay $1/month to subscribe to an RSS feed or, perhaps, $4.95 for a package of 10 feeds.

Not surprisingly, the response was unenthusiastic. With so much content being pumped out every day, how many blogs are worth $1 – especially when many people are reluctant to pay for “professional” editorial content from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, et al.

But what about online applications, particularly those you use on a regular basis? Would you pay $1 to $2/month to use Google Reader, for example. What about Wordpress? After raising $29.5-million, Wordpress will probably be looking to create new sources of revenue, so would you balk if they instituted a $1/month service fee for something you use every day?

What about $3/month for a package that included Wordpress, Google Reader, del.icio.us, Google Docs, Facebook and Twitter?

And what about one-time fees? Earlier this week, I was looking for a way to convert a Word document into a PDF. After a quick search, I found PDFOnline, which offers a free conversion service. It worked so well that I would have gladly paid 50 cents or $1 if it was required.

Unfortunately, there are probably few people would actually pay for online applications, even if they really liked them. We live in a world of free with the idea of freemium (the concept of paying for premium services) looming in the background but sadly ignored.

At this point in the game, getting people to change their behavior would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, unless many of the major service providers (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, etc.) got together and decided free wasn’t working any more. Of course, this scheme would quickly stop working as opportunistic players offered free services.

Still, you have to wonder an ad-supported service marketplace can continue to stay vibrant. Sure, development and server costs have dropped dramatically but there’s no such thing as a free lunch any more right?

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter, Wordpress