Freemium: A New Business Model for a New Web

The freemium concept gets a lot of attention these days, and for good reason; many of the services we use on a regular basis use the freemium business model.

The freemium business model is simple; deliver a good product for free, and then offer a better, faster or more powerful version of that same product for a price. As the global marketplace that is the Web has evolved, more and more of the products people use every day follow the freemium model. Take Hulu, for example. For about a year, users were able to access all the content on the site free of charge. Recently however, the site has added content which users must pay to access. This might seem like a bold move, but in reality once users are accustomed to a product being available, they will pay to keep it that way. Additionally, if a product has a good user base, enhancements to the product – at a price – will be not only welcome, but sought after.

Apple’s iPhone has pioneered the freemium movement with their “Apps” store. Some basic apps are free (and some even come with the device), but the more advanced or fun apps are offered for a fee.

Correlsense has also made headway in the enterprise freemium arena with their SharePath Real User Monitoring (RUM) Express offer. By offering this 100% free software, Correlsense can show IT professionals the usefulness of the SharePath software without requiring a major investment on the user’s end. We can do this because, like Apple and Hulu, we know that SharePath, once in use, will become invaluable to the overall operations of the enterprise IT team.

As the Web grows and changes, we’re sure to see more and more vendors adopting the enterprise freemium model. And as users become comfortable with and accustomed to various new services, the amount they are willing to spend for better and faster versions of those services will only increase.