The Reality of Freemium in SaaS
via scribd.com
The NY Times' Freemium Strategy
via A VC by Fred on 1/21/10
I was very pleased to see yesterday that the NY Times has made the decision to adopt the FT's subscription model over some of the other options they had. I wrote the following last summer and thought it would be useful to reblog it today:
--------------
Monetize The Audience, Not The Content
There's a lot of discussion out there about how online content should be monetized.
In particular, the newspaper industry is doing a lot of soul searching for the right revenue model. For many publications, particularly legacy publications with higher cost models, advertising alone isn't covering the nut.
Let's leave out the discussion of the print side of these businesses for this discussion. I think most papers would be better off without the print business but I also understand why many won't walk away from a print based product just yet.
For those content owners with a cost model that can't be covered with advertising alone, subscriptions seem like the obvious choice. And yet, for most, subscriptions have not worked very well.
The worst examples of subscription services are those that break the content up into free and paid. It's as if some content is worth more than other content. I think that is the wrong idea most of the time, and especially in news and news related content.
I like the subscription model the FT has been using for some time now. I may get the exact details wrong but its the idea that's important anyway. You can visit the ft.com domain something like nine times per month for free. They cookie you and when you stop by the tenth time in a month, they ask you to pay. And many do.
This model recognizes a few fundamental facts about the internet. First, you need to make your content available for search engines and social media linking. That drives as much as half or more of the visits these days. And if you have an ad model at all, and most newspapers do, then you need those visits and that audience.
Its also true that the 'drive by' visits will bring new audiences, some of whom will become loyal and ultimately paid audience members.
The other thing I like about the FT's model is that its an elegant implementation of freemium
. The best freemium models allow anyone to use the service for free and then convert the most serious/frequent/power users to paying customers.
Apparently the NY Times has been surveying its readers in an effort to find the right subscription model. I hope they'll ask them about the FT's model. Its simple to understand and my guess is most will like it.
If they roll it out, I'll gladly sign up because I visit the NY Times at least ten times a month and I would like to help pay the costs of the people who create it.
Attention all ____________ users: Google will now target ads at you
via Android Central by Phil Nickinson on 1/20/10
Google today announced a net strategy for AdWords, targeting users by directly depending on which carrier or device they use. That will let advertisers more directly reach consumers if they so choose, but it doesn't mean that you'll no longer see ads for, say, an iPhone while you're surfing on your Motorola Droid. Advertisers will have a choice. (Interestingly, though, options are to target iPhone/iPod touch, Android and webOS -- Symbian and Windows Mobile are shut out.)
Also, ads that link to mobile downloads are being refined so that they'll only appear on devices that can actually use that app. So, no Super Monkey Ball ads should show up on the Nexus One. And for ads of apps that your phone does support, Google's working to make it so that you'll see a "Download" link and not just a URL. Cool. [Inside AdWords]
Working from an RV
More people should do this. Would have been fun before kids.http://nerdnomad.com/the-rv-loopholeMore US Patent Lunacy
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,650,331.PN.&OS=PN/7,650,331&RS=PN/7,650,331Mobile Apps Are A 4 Billion Dollars Business, 99.4% Owned By Apple
via App Advice by Alexander Vaughn on 1/19/10
You folks all know by now that mobile apps are a huge business. On top of Apple’s App Store own incredible growth, we’re witnessing the emergence of App distribution platforms pretty much everywhere those days, all the way to cars.
All of this is not happening without reasons. According to the latest report from market research firm Gartner, the App Store business in 2009 generated an incredible 4.2 billion dollars in sales. And the trend is also definitely upwards.
If their projections hold, nearly 30 billion dollars will be spent on mobile apps every year by 2013.
Furthermore, still according to them, Apple is at the moment in a quasi-monopolistic situation, owning over 99% of the market. A situation resulting from their first-mover advantage that should however soften over time, still leaving them with over two thirds of the market by 2013.
Lastly, the growing trend for ad-supported apps should lead to 25% of those revenue to originate from in-app advertising, thus Quattro’s acquisition.
The big unsolved question here is however who will profit from this? Apple, that’s a given, indies or big name developers? Only the future will tell.
[via Ars Technica]
Related Posts
- Adobe Launches An Acrobat.com Companion App
- You Too, Can Own A $1000 App
- Pushme.to Gets You Pushed From A Web Page
- Infography: The Apple App Store Economy
- Apple Announces New App Store Stats: More Than 3 Billion App Downloads
Google's spat with Chinese government causes 'postponement' of Android phones
via Engadget by Vladislav Savov on 1/19/10
You have to love a good clash of legitimate titans, and they don't get much bigger than Google and China. After deciding to stop censoring its Google.cn results, the Mountain View company of evil-non-doers has stepped up its offensive with the announcement that two Android phones -- one from Samsung and one from Motorola -- which were slated to make their arrival on China Unicom on Wednesday have now been postponed. We'll read between the lines and guess that the phones will be "postponed" if China plays nice, or "never gonna happen" if it doesn't. Google seems intent on demonstrating the full impact of its potential withdrawal from China, and this show of its sway with mobile manufacturers will hardly go unnoticed. [Thanks, David Casteneta]Google's spat with Chinese government causes 'postponement' of Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |
BBC | Email this | CommentsAndroid popularity increases 200 percent over last 3 months
via Android Community by Paul Fang on 1/18/10
Android usage has grown by leaps and bounds in the last several months. According to statistics from a ChangeWave research report, usage and overall consumer outlook towards Google’s mobile operating system has skyrocketed over the last three months. As of December 2009, the research firm’s survey shows that 4% of all users now have smartphones running some version of Google’s Android OS. That’s a whopping increase of 200% since the previous survey released in September.
ChangeWave’s December 9-14 survey of over 4,000 consumers reveals that the Android OS is churning up the smartphone market, with Motorola’s new Droid the leading recipient of attention (quickly being chased after by the Nexus One, of course). Furthermore, 21% of those planning a smartphone purchase in the next 90 days say they’d prefer to buy a phone with the Android OS – a massive 15% point leap from the 6% of just three months ago in September.
Three months ago, the Android OS was tied for last place in consumer preference among the dominant mobile operating systems – since then it has jumped to second place, ahead of all but the iPhone OS (28%) which is down 4% from previously. Combined, the overall market share for Android is on the climb. This growth is benefitting both Android smartphone makers Motorola and HTC. Since September, Motorola has had a 12% increase in terms of future buying, the first increase for the company in three years. HTC has also increased from 5% to 9% in the same time frame, a change prompted both by the N1 release and the November release of the Droid Eris.
