FREE/Long Tail

What does the downturn mean for free?

To those who suggest that the downturn means that the free-to-consumers model of web software will go away in favor of good old selling to businesses, Fred Wilson begs to differ. “If your free version is popular with a lot of users, your customer base is the target for the upsell and you might be able to live without an expensive sales force initially. And, of course, keep your costs really low until you start to get revenues. In summary, freemium is far from dead, in fact it may be the business model de rigueur.”