MediaMemo: PAID is Not a Dirty Word

i may swear a lot on this blog and in person, but the word "PAID" is not a dirty word (altho strangely, it *is* a four-letter word ;)

here's interview i did at SXSW with Peter Kafka of Media Memo / AllThingsD:

note to Mom: didn't drop any F-bombs, only a few choice curse words. oops.

Comments

[damon billian]

One thing I've learned in life: You pay for something of value and/or that provides a service. While I am probably in the minority, I would gladly pay some money for either LinkedIn or Facebook. The value they give me in return is something I wouldn't mind paying for. I already pay money for Flickr and Picnik because of the services they provide.

[James Siminoff]

PhoneTag has been a paid service since day 1. Everyone said we were crazy in 2005 for charging. We are now profitable and have unlimited runway ahead of us, not looking so crazy now.

Paid is Web 3.0

[yongfook]

Well said. I made some similar points over in Singapore recently: http://www.slideshare.net/yongfook/fire-your-boss-1112970

Joel Postman of Intridea (who run a number of SaaS apps on a subscription basis) who was also in Singapore with me agreed, saying - and I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him - "free is dead".

Heh. Definitely for small businesses that can run cheaply, aiming for profit rather than user growth has always made more sense to me. It's stupid that we feel apprehensive about charging for things that actually have value. If it's a niche product that genuinely benefits the user in some way, then put a price tag on it FFS!

The challenge of course is going to be re-educating a generation of internet users on why they should pay, when we kind of have this weird, ingrained sense of entitlement for free stuff.