Is ‘free’ too good to be true?
Response to Chris Anderson’s ‘Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business’ – WEEK 4
This article didn’t answer as many questions as it did create them, and I was left wondering:
• When, if ever, will this ‘free’ revolution end?
• Will it be economically viable in the future for product prices to drop as rapidly as they are now? Can this revolution be sustained?
• Will what is free be determined by the price-makers/companies as it is now, or by consumers?
• What will happen as consumers begin to expect more extravagant things to be free and the markets cannot deliver?
• How devious will companies become with cross-subsidies to lure customers and gain profits?
Free products need to be appealing in order for the system to work – it would be no good to offer something for free in the hope that people will buy another product when the free item is useless.
Nothing can ever truly be free – there are costs somewhere down the line, because making money is the aim of the game. Consumers will start to become more and more aware of this over time, and perhaps won’t be as easily ‘sucked in’ to the schemes of businesses and companies.
Check out this article from ITnews about the consumer demand for free content.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/65946,consumers-demand-free-online-content.aspx
