Everything’s free on the internet. Free is everywhere you turn, it’s all so easy, sign up to this, sign up to that, register here, login, sign in, don’t worry it just takes a second to sign up, we 
just need your email, no – + or $ symbols. Choose a password with a minimum of 6 characters, 4 numbers and an explanation of how gravity works, why it gets cooler just before the sun comes up and the square root of 347.6…. quick you’ve only got 5 seconds to complete this form, 5, 4, 3, nah just kidding take as long as you want we need your details to expand the database, which in turn helps us value the company to prospective buyers. Oh yeah that’s right, leave your wallet in your pants champ, this one’s on us.
But it’s not free. Free is your time. Free is arguably more expensive. Who has nothing to do?
Free is asking you to pull away from whatever else might have been otherwise occupying that timeslot and dedicating it to itself.
And because time is the one thing you can’t get more of, free products that exist now and are developed in the future will have to either be unbelievably unique and valuable – which is an initial short term proposition because others will see what you’ve done and attempt replicate it, so relevant and constant innovation will be necessary (think MySpace vs Bebo vs Friendster vs Facebook) – or are very quick and accurate but not worth paying for, (think xe.com and Google).
On the other hand the product can be good and valuable and can be subscription based and you may just end up with a great and even better product, more solid financials and a more qualified database that care enough to buy and use the product.
Because when something is free and grows quickly, it’s also subject to faster competitive loss in the event of getting out-maneuvered, out-innovated or out-played.
Is ‘free’ the answer? Probably not, excellent products will excel, and the rest will fall by the wayside. No free is just a price point, the product is still king.
No comments:
Post a Comment