Survival of the Free Software Model
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “The Economics of Giving It Away,” Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, states that “Free may be the best price, but it can’t be the only one.”
Twitter, Pandora, Pogo, Facebook, and YouTube have all built an enormous user base using the free or freemium model. Now they are all working on the problem of how to raise enough cash to cover their overhead.
South Park even had a show about this issue. Have you ever heard of the Underpants Gnomes? Their business plan is – Phase 1: Collect Underpants; Phase 2: ???; Phase 3: PROFIT! In other words, collect a lot of users and hope to make a profit, but having no idea where the profit is going to come from.
W3i can fill in the Phase 2 of the Underpants Gnomes business model. Give your downloads away for free by joining W3i’s Download Network. Since 2000, W3i has installed over 200 million downloads for free, supported by its Download Network, generating cash for software companies. Several companies with free software models have partnered with W3i to increase their revenue—Digsby, Anchor Free, and startup, Bewiki.
This is how it works. Companies join W3i’s Download Network for two reasons: to increase revenue or to increase distribution. Companies with demand for their downloads use W3i’s proprietary Windows Installer, Install IQ, to offer their users valued-added software from companies like Yahoo!, AWS Convergence Technologies (WeatherBug), and Winferno, who have revenue-generating business models and are looking for distribution. The user downloads your software, as well as the value-added software that they select, creating revenue to support your acquisition or operational costs.
So go ahead and give away your free software, but be smart about it and join W3i’s Download Network. To learn more, contact W3i.
Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over nine, profitable years building proven business models that increase revenue and distribution for downloads.
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