We love free (even when we know free will fail)
We serial early adopters can be royal pains in the ass.
We want our shiny new web stuff, but not if it comes with a business model attached. We try nascent services while they are free to the user and unpolluted by dirty, dirty ads. We grouse about downtime, missing functionality and poor performance -- but we understand that new is new and, hey, it's free...
But as soon as the spectre of revenue stream begins rattling its chains, we begin scouting for alternatives.
When rumors that Twitter either was or wasn't testing ads in the stream hit the blogosphere earlier this week, at least one prominent Twitterer expressed his concern. We did the same when Facebook began inserting ads in the feed and when Google started experimenting with in-stream video ads on YouTube. As my regular readers know, I hate advertising as much as the next guy -- probably even more so -- so I'm one of the guys that decries any new media platform's attempts to migrate to an ad supported model.
Yet we are just as likely to complain - hell, I'm just as likely to complain -- when, in an effort to remain ad-free (or at least relatively uncluttered), our new favorites try to charge us subscription or usage fees. Sure some web tools have crossed the chasm -- Flickr Pro and SkypeIn come to mind -- but pay for Twitter? Shell out a few bucks a month for del.cio.us Plus? Willing to pay $10/month for an ad free MySpace profile? That's crazy talk.
We want what we want and we want it to be good. And we want it to be around for as long as we're still interested in using it. But we love it to be free.
But we're not stupid. We're all business people here; we know that these services cost money to build, maintain, host and deliver. And we realize that the money needs to come from somewhere. Sure, it might come from deep pocketed investors (at least initially, right when we're first discovering the service) but we also realize that it is only a matter of time before those investors start thinking about upside -- and upside for an investor often means a revenue model for the investee.
It seems to me there are really only two revenue models for most web-based services:
- The users pay with their money
- The users pay with their attention
But it seems that, for many of us, neither option appeals. What's a company to do? Follow the path to monetization and alienate the early adopters who embraced it in its earliest days? Hold out as long as possible, while running the risk of collapsing under rising expenses and non-existent revenue streams?
I don't know the right answer, but I figure some of you have thoughts on this topic. What do you think? Chime in.
