Using WeChat is free, using WeChat wallet to withdraw cash is charged, using WeChat to log in to QQ Music to listen to Jay Chou’s songs is charged, using a small program to order takeout, the platform will subsidize you a few dollars so that you can order more a fried egg;
"Free", "paid" and "subsidy" in the Internet economy run through our daily life, but gradually, applications that used to be free to use can attract users, requiring a lot of capital subsidies to attract users; also Gradually, functions that were previously free to use require users to pay to unlock….
01 Start from free
Free literally means that you can country email list use and get it without spending money;
Anderson talks about the freeness of the Internet in detail in the book "Free". Anderson's view is:
The Internet brings together microprocessors, network broadband and storage. With the continuous promotion of the technological revolution brought about by the continuous development of technology, the cost of these three is decreasing at an alarming rate. The Internet not only integrates the three well, but also at a very low cost. Reached hundreds of millions of users.
Under such a trend, when an Internet software reaches a large number of users with a production cost that is close to zero and a circulation cost that is also close to zero, its price will naturally approach zero.
So he put forward this view:
Free is a unique feature of the digital age. The price of software will inevitably approach zero. The general trend of this era is giving birth to a huge new economy. In such a new economy, the basic pricing is zero. .
In the PC Internet era before 2010 , free search, free social networking, free news watching, free anti-virus, free sending and receiving emails... The first generation of Internet companies relied on the free strategy to rise and achieved a brilliant era.
Under the trend of mobile smartphones from 2010 to 2014, the free model also helped mobile Internet companies to create brilliance; the most representative is WeChat; we no longer spend money to send messages, we can send messages by opening WeChat, not only text, but also voice and video, more dynamic of contacts;
Another example is Xiaomi's Redmi mobile phone, which has gained thousands of users in a relatively free way (sold at cost).
In 2010-14, smart phones became popular, everyone used smart phones, and the birth of smart phones supported the use of mobile scene functions. need.
Under such conditions, everyone is naturally willing to use relevant excellent, user-friendly and free mobile products;
It is in this way that during this period, the free model helped excellent mobile products gain a large number of users;
02 Subsidy, free radical version
Gradually, the new products we hear are not only free, but also subsidized. Without subsidies, we are too embarrassed to come up with them.
The rise of group buying means that subsidizing money to acquire customers has become a new variant of free thinking. Group buying is emerging as a new model. Cheap is the core attraction of group buying. The regular price of a package of 200 yuan, the group buying price is only 50 yuan. Consumers flock here, and the group buying outlet is open. At the peak, there are more than 6,000 domestic group buying websites.
Group buying is a typical two-sided market. The platform attracts buyers and sellers at the same time. This presents the dilemma of “the chicken or the egg”: gathering buyers first can attract sellers, but without sellers, how to attract buyers?
Therefore, attracting users by subsidies has become a standard action in the early stage, and it is easy to find merchants later. After all, people who want to spend money (consumers) are hard to find, and people who make money (merchants) are easy to find.