Comments on: Mark Cuban: Free=Failure

By: adult merchant account

adult merchant account — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:30:28 +0000

I also added your site in my rss reader great post.

By: J.R. Jackson (Internet's $8-Million Man)

J.R. Jackson (Internet's $8-Million Man) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:36:50 +0000

Very good article.

By: DOmainer

DOmainer — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:50:07 +0000

I think SOME of you are missing the point of what Mark Cuban means. I have often wondered how Twitter stays in business. Give it time it will be operating just like a Google.

By: MHB

MHB — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:11:02 +0000

Adult sites have been doing this for 10 years or more.

Adult always leads the way on the net.

By: FX

FX — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:42:16 +0000

i wish more sites would offer free trial option slamming it into a recurring + cross sells. freeCreditreport.com is the second most successful free site after AOL.com software. Like i said earlier we’re off topic here and this has nothing to do with Cuban.

By: Cartoonz

Cartoonz — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:25:49 +0000

“FreeCreditReport.com has done just fine over the years…”
… by not being “free” at all!
Those “credit watcher” charges add up… they make a mint off those monthly billings and you must sign up for that to get your report. Sure, you can cancel it before the first billing cycle but it is amazing how high the percentage is of folks that don’t.

Google doesn’t really belong on the “freemium” list, it has done quite well charging advertisers. And, unlike the social networking sites mentioned – people click those ads. If they didn’t, most of us would be in another line of work…. however much Google has
degraded our payments.

But as to the basic premise – the social networking “freemium” (I love that word.. haha) sites like MyFace, Twaddle, Mugbook… what Cuban’s saying really does ring true. Ad revenue sucks big time in comparison to their user base because none of the users are there for any other reason than their own – to use the “free” service.

Facebook will fall out of fashion soon enough, that cycle has been demonstrated many times.

Some newer, more feature rich, hipper, slicker, cooler platform will come out and folks will then flock to that.

Problem is… it will need to be free also in order to get the user base… and around the wheel the hamsters go again…

By: DotWTF.com

DotWTF.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:24:46 +0000

I agree with that, I think he is focused on Social Media don’t you ? Maybe he is looking at investing and trying to bring the valuation down, never know with Cuban a lot of disinformation in what he blogs a lot of the time.

By: MHB

MHB — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:49:27 +0000

Dot

A lot of free sites have gone away and plenty of companies that charged for their products have gone away as well.

That is way blanket statements don’t work for business.

By: DotWTF.com

DotWTF.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:37:39 +0000

Well Google is not Free they make a lot of money in a lot of areas to call Google free is naive IMO to search is free but they want that so you click on sponsored links that are not free, Now Twitter needs to find a way to make money or they will have problems IMO.

IMO Michael you cannot say he is wrong in a blanket statement either, a lot of free cool sites have gone away and users get pissed each time.

BrightCove ran a free version then did away with that, pissed a lot of people off. Homestead which is still doing well and sold out to a bigger company took a lot of flack for doing away with free. You see a lot of web 2.0 companies who are still around did away with the free component VideoEGG for one.

I think you need to have some plan toward getting $$$. Facebook has two large groups that are about “We will never pay” If I am Facebook with 200 million members I would rather have 50 million paying $4.99 a month and screw the other 150 million, bottom line if the site is such a big part of their life a good percentage will eventually pay the $4.99 rather than become a social outcast or affect their business. Again IMO

By: Jody

Jody — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:21:37 +0000

Basic TV, AM/FM radio…