I wrote a post last weekend called My Favorite Business Model. I posted it earlier today. Here is how I described the business model:
Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc, then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.
At the end of the post I asked for some suggestions of what I should call this business model. I’ve gotten 33 comments already which may make this the most commented post I’ve ever written, surely its the most commented post in the first day I’ve ever written.
And at the risk of calling the game before it’s over, I have to go with Freemium. I love the name, suggested by Jarid Lukin of the Flatiron portfolio company Alacra.
So from here on in, I will refer to this business model as the freemium business model. I hope the name sticks because I love it.
Freemiumという言葉が生まれた瞬間。
NYのベンチャーキャピタリスト、Fred Wilson氏の2006年3月の記事。この記事に先立つMy Favorite Business ModelでSkype、Flickr、Dropboxなどを例にあげ、こうしたビジネスモデルをどう呼ぶべきか、という問いかけをしています。
日本では昨年末にフリー~〈無料〉からお金を生みだす新戦略が発売されて以来、フリーミアムがちょっとしたブームですね。週間ダイヤモンド3/13号はフリーミアム特集らしい。
サイボウズLiveのビジネスモデルはフリーミアムですが、決してブームにのっかっている訳ではなく、書籍発売前から認識していたモデルであることをプロダクトマネージャーとしては強調しておきたいw
