" Free " is the most important keyword on the internet. It implies " free of charge." But, something is changing on the internet. Offering a high quality service, which at the same time is optimized to sell advertising space, is incompatible. Of course it depends on the sector, where social networks and news services live off the mass of their visits, but when it is the case of offering a specific high quality service, it is no longer an option.
Examples such as Babbel (online language learning portal) 37 Signals (CRM, project management software, contacts, etc.) or Bidsketch (SaaS system for designers) show that customers, when they need a quality service, are willing to pay for it. By the time Bidsketch ditched the Freemium model, their subscriptions grew by 800% - despite the fact that many people will complain, the return on investment is clearly higher when you just drop the free plans. Your service may not be that popular, but at least you can make a living from it.
Of course, we do not deny the success of social phenomena such as the Mozilla project, Linux or Wikipedia. It is impressive how a committed community can develop projects of this magnitude. But it is a minority, most of the pages or “pseudo-services” are financed with ads, with the aim of making money (in contrast to the mentioned projects).
The problem is that it is different to offer a product with a design aimed at offering the best possible service, in contrast to designing it based on “advertisements”, where they achieve greater exposure. The visitor's attention is intentionally directed to the ads, not the content.
It is perhaps one of the key elements in the so-called " Web 3.0 ", outside of the cloud, and elements of data analysis, the fact of directly monetizing a product that has been created with a specific function is a reality. The customer must be the one using the service, and not the advertiser. Of course, this is not valid in all business areas of the network, but for some it will be inevitable.
