Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Nothing is Free

Nothing is free - everything has a cost - whether we pay directly or indirectly is a differnt matter. At the same time, I am sure many of us has also come across the tag line "Doing More for Less". So in the paradime of "Nothing is Free", the thought that troubles me how can one get more out of less when we know nothing is really free. My thoughts took me to google and today morning I found an interesting book on the same subject "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" by Chris Anderson where the auther is talking about the Economics of Abundance & why zero pricing is changing the face of business. In real economics term the idea looks absurd to me but I would defer my judgment till I read the book (hopefully!). However, any common sense will tell you that if you not paying through your wallet you are paying it in a differnt way.

I know today's changing business worls these seemingly absurd ideas are creating values for the shareholder and customers. A typical example is internet music where you get to listen an advertisement before you get your song but I don't know how many people will like that approach. I know ragaa.com was doing that some time back was playing citibank's advertisement but I heard they have stopped doing that instead put asvertisement in thier website. One of my senior has also talked about similar concept on video - show people new movie free of cost but show them advertisement in between. And there are probably many more such inovative thoughts and products. But the question is are they really free?