Why FreeConomics Doesn't Work*

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

One presentation I was genuinely sorry to miss today (along with Lee Bryant‘s Niche Social Networks FTW) was Alan Patrick’s presentation on the Limits of Freeconomics. Luckily, he’s already posted the slides from his presentation:

[Broadsight – Web 2.0 Expo Presentation](http://www.slideshare.net/Broadsight/broadsight-web-20-expo-presentation-presentation?type=powerpoint "Broadsight - Web 2.0 Expo Presentation")
View SlideShare [presentation](http://www.slideshare.net/Broadsight/broadsight-web-20-expo-presentation-presentation?type=powerpoint "View Broadsight - Web 2.0 Expo Presentation on SlideShare") or [Upload](http://www.slideshare.net/upload?type=powerpoint) your own.
The [key message](http://broadstuff.com/archives/1325-Limits-to-FreeConomics-at-Web-2.0-Expo,-Berlin.html) here is subtly different from the one that seems to permeate much of the conference. There’s an implication that Web 2. startups should be shifting away from ad supported models, because of the economic downturn and the steady drying up of ad budgets. But Alan’s point is deeper than that. What he’s illustrating in these slides is that the “Free” model was never, ever going to work for anything other than a tiny handful of companies. Simply put: there was never enough ad spend out there o support the number of companies who were relying on it.

And that brings us into a whole different ball game. What the credit crunch has done is expose the reality of a situation that was already there, rather than creating a new one. And that has profound implications for the sort of Web 2.0 tools we’ll see emerging over the next 18 months.

*For Everyone

alan patrickbroadstufffreeconomicsrevenuesstartupsw2ebweb 2.0
Adam Tinworth

Adam Tinworth Twitter

Adam is a digital journalism lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, a journalist for 30 and teaches audience strategy and engagement at City St George’s, London.

Comments

You might also like

Playing the last post for the defunct Twitter competitor Post News

The last post for Post News Members Public

Another would-be Twitter replacement is dead in the water. What killed this one?

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth
microblogging

A Delicious Lesson In Owning Digital Products Members Public

Really long-term readers of this blog might remember Delicious (or, as I still instinctively type it, del.icio.us – surely one of the best domain names ever), the social bookmarking site. It was, in essence, a semi-public web-based version of the browser bookmarking that you probably don’t use. Delicious

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth
delicious

Featured Posts

Audience Engagement: two words, both matter

An abstract image of audience engagement

Why we need new gatekeepers to counter AI slop

Launching the Institute for Creativity and AI

What the hell is happening at Automattic (part 2)?

A knight standing in front of a tattered WordPress held aloft by an army.

AI: should publishers sign up or sue?

AI Friday: a human crafted-guide to our digitally-created future

A journalist kicking back and relaxing while an AI gets on with her work. Well, we can dream, can't we?

Author

Adam Tinworth

Adam is a digital journalism lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, a journalist for 30 and teaches audience strategy and engagement at City St George’s, London.