“Sooner or later people are going to get addicted to some of these services and they’ll be willing to pay for it.”
- John Malone, the chairman Liberty Media, quoted by The Guardian about his belief that consumers will eventually pay for their favorite online services.
His comments begs a few questions:
1. what online services would you pay to use?
2. How much would you be willing to pay for them?
3. Is pay-to-play going to have a bigger role in the future of online services?
They are interesting questions because, in theory, you can understand why getting consumers to pay for the services they use makes sense for many people. Malone, for example, has been running cable services in which consumers happily pay healthy amounts of money to watch TV and movies.
In the Web 2.0 world, however, free – and, to some extend, freemium – has become a key element of the competitive landscape. Even services that people are “addicted to” have a difficult time convincing people to upgrade to the paid version from the free version.
For some services such as Google and Facebook, free works because you can attract a big enough audience that they become attractive to advertisers.
For many others, however, they struggle with free because the number of users never gets big enough – even if the service they’re offering is excellent and useful.
So, what would you be willing to pay to use?
What about Twitter? For many of us, Twitter has become an essential communications, marketing and sales tool. So what if Twitter announced one day that consumer accounts would now be $2/month while businesses would have to pay $5/month? Would you pony up the two bucks, or would you and many of your friends looking for another free micro-blogging service?
Personally, I’d pay at least $2/month to use Twitter. I’d pay to use Techmeme. I’d probably pay to use Wordpress if came with some premium services.
What about you? What services would you pay to use? And what services are you paying to use now?
More: For more on how Twitter might be able to monetize its popularity, check out the New York Times’ DealBook.
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What Services Would You Pay to Use?
“Sooner or later people are going to get addicted to some of these services and they’ll be willing to pay for it.”
- John Malone, the chairman Liberty Media, quoted by The Guardian about his belief that consumers will eventually pay for their favorite online services.
His comments begs a few questions:
1. what online services would you pay to use?
2. How much would you be willing to pay for them?
3. Is pay-to-play going to have a bigger role in the future of online services?
They are interesting questions because, in theory, you can understand why getting consumers to pay for the services they use makes sense for many people. Malone, for example, has been running cable services in which consumers happily pay healthy amounts of money to watch TV and movies.
In the Web 2.0 world, however, free – and, to some extend, freemium – has become a key element of the competitive landscape. Even services that people are “addicted to” have a difficult time convincing people to upgrade to the paid version from the free version.
For some services such as Google and Facebook, free works because you can attract a big enough audience that they become attractive to advertisers.
For many others, however, they struggle with free because the number of users never gets big enough – even if the service they’re offering is excellent and useful.
So, what would you be willing to pay to use?
What about Twitter? For many of us, Twitter has become an essential communications, marketing and sales tool. So what if Twitter announced one day that consumer accounts would now be $2/month while businesses would have to pay $5/month? Would you pony up the two bucks, or would you and many of your friends looking for another free micro-blogging service?
Personally, I’d pay at least $2/month to use Twitter. I’d pay to use Techmeme. I’d probably pay to use Wordpress if came with some premium services.
What about you? What services would you pay to use? And what services are you paying to use now?
More: For more on how Twitter might be able to monetize its popularity, check out the New York Times’ DealBook.