Chris Anderson: Free: Learn to love $0.00

chris.jpgDid listen to Chris Anderson lecture at Mediaevolution. The lecture was about his next book Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. As always his lecture was good, but the panel discussion was great. When the questions started Chris knowledge and brainpower showed off. Most of the questions where around media and journalism: How media is changing with the concept of Free (Internet, bloggs etc).

My impression of the reactions of the audience is that his bestseller Long Tail was easy to accept, but the concept of free is not. The reason is that it’s pointing out why and how things will change. Change is connected to fear. But business is and always will change if there is not a few controlling the market. The media business has to share their business with 100 millions working for free online. Change is an opportunity if you know how to navigate. For Wired Magazine where Chris is chief editor is the web working well, online readers are transformed into magazine readers.

Free is the price you have to pay to get consumers to start using your product and services. Corporations as Microsoft did build their empire on the Free formula. That’s the reason for why they did not stop the piracy of their software in China (people got use to Windows). Know the are in many way out compared by a more interesting Free formula: Open source. I think the reason is that if consumers can create something together they like it more and it will spread faster.

Some of Chris Anderson best Oneliners from the lecture:

“You don’t value Google less because it’s for free. Where you spend your time is the value.”

“You can’t stop piracy (and I don’t think you should).”

“Being big and don’t have a solid business plan is probably not a good place to be right now.”

“When people don’t have no money, zero is a good price.”

“Using Free as a marketing tool, and with that reach consumers how can become heavy users.”

In other words: Making money, by providing values for free!

What I would like to ask Chris: Is money not an “ out of date” model of putting a value on product and services? I mean when consumers are contributing with their time, feedback and spreading the world – is that not worth more than money? Partly he did answer my question in his lecture, corporations are now starting to pay consumers to consume. But I don’t think its enough I think we stand in front of a new economical time where money is not good enough as a value exchanger.

Chris lecture did deliver good points about Free. Now are we al waiting to find more answers in his book that is out in 6 mounts from today.

11 reaktioner på ”Chris Anderson: Free: Learn to love $0.00”

  1. Pingback: Twingly Blog » Chris Anderson observing the growth of freemium

  2. Does this guy really think hes on to something…?
    Giving away for free with one hand while you take the fee’s wiht the other must be the oldest trick in town.

    And one shouldn forget that for every one that succeded in gving away for free and then finding a business there are ten that didnt. They just gave away, gave away and then were decapitated by their VC’s.

    And we shouldnt fool ourselfs here Stefan, money IS still what makes the world go around. Wether we like it or not we need them to buy food, at least until I can trade one of my blogs for a Big Mac….

    Some comments to his…words:

    “You don’t value Google less because it’s for free. Where you spend your time is the value.” –
    Google isnt free, somebody is paying wich means Im paying somewere…

    “You can’t stop piracy (and I don’t think you should).”
    – No lets just give it all away and then eat the customer/users smiles…

    “Being big and don’t have a solid business plan is probably not a good place to be right now.”
    – When was it good to be big, or small and dont have a solid business plan?

    “When people don’t have no money, zero is a good price.”
    – Yeah, I tried that in the grocery store they didnt really agreee…!

    “Using Free as a marketing tool, and with that reach consumers how can become heavy users.”
    – Yeah and they use and use and they use me up…all of me and I get..nada..?

  3. Thanks Michael, For good free input.

    Yes I agree that: money IS still what makes the world go around. But Chris point is more about how to make it spin around your business.
    Free is expensive if it not includes new management. Money is hard to handle and therefore is free even harder, but free can give you more money.

  4. I do think that Chris is himself a dying breed. He’s telling companies to give things for free in order to stay alive. Nothing could be more wrong.

    Google is the excerpt – not the rule. Only 1 company can do what they’ve done because they’ve reached the status of “a place you can’t avoid to advertise” which means they get pennies & cents from every guy – that will not happen to any other company on the web for a very long time.

    A Much More Important book to write would be “Here is how you get people to pay on the web”.

    Chris was completely wrong about the Long Tail which doesn’t exist (its like old brochures lying in the Dentist waiting room – no big action will come out of those occasional readings) and he’s completely wrong about boosting about “Free as the new thing”.

    Learn from Real Marketing Experts on how to charge – not from a journalists big ego on selling himself for 500,000 per lecture which certainly isn’t free.

    I’ve learned my lessons after 10 years in this Industry that the media of Computer-to-Computer is nothing different than any other media but just as there’s business models for Free News Papers when there’s enough advertisers there’s room for Free Web Content when there’s enough advertiser but don’t make this any general rule for anything – its just one business model of many.

  5. thanks Lennart,
    I respect and understand your point. But at the same time I do think Free is an good tool to spread the word and share values that only can grow with consumers.

  6. I did not say “wrong” about free 🙂 – however, Chris is not doing Internet Business any good by spreading the word that “You have to have a free service on the Internet to succeed” because its completely wrong.

    I’m very tired of those few “internet gurus” that still likes to treat Internet as a “new world” where the old rules don’t apply.

    What I’m saying is that Chris message is part of the last dying breed which in Sweden started with Holstein, Birgersson & Ahlvarsson and other people around the world which fooled a lot of “normal” persons into investments they don’t understand.

    ————
    I can take each issue by itself and if we take for example “open source”. Yes – you can say that its “free” to use. But the trick is that if you’re talking to the business community – open source is not free at all.

    Red Hat, the largest distributor of Open Source system Linux, is making a ton of money on licences to make sure that the free system is working according to the clients need.

    Its not a free ride to use Open Source – the costs are spread differently – but its far from free.
    ————
    The business community doesn’t need people like Chris shouting out that companies should give out more for less – because it will not work that way so easy – name one other company than Google that Chris can proof his thesis on?

  7. Thanks Lennart, you know what you are talking about, like few. I think what Chris is talking about is not to have everything free but: Making money, by providing values for free! And does how can pay will and should pay to business is still based on bottom line. Chris is working as a chief editor and he did mention that they got an sales force of 1000 sales people in this publishing corporation, and they al get payed by making money. But if the magazine they are selling ad space for can give them leeds by providing free values al of them will make more money.

  8. Good discussion here Stefan. Of course Chris knows that he needs to make sales – he’s a smart person AND there is definitely value in giving away things for free. I just signed up at Salesforce as an individual user completely for free.

    So we completely agree that there’s a need for free stuff in order to attract peoples interest. The interesting thing with Google is that instead of traditional content (articles & photos) they provide people with technical tools for free. But the costs of producing a good article or some code is probably the same today and with the web you can just as easily distribute a tool as content for free.

    I’d like us Swedes & Europeans challenge the Americans in Marketing – we don’t need Chris coming to Sweden to understand that you have to give to get – why aren’t Stefan in the United States charging SEK 500,000 to tell their manufacturing Industry on how to produce quality products like we do in Sweden (a thing they seem to have forgot within cars etc 🙂

  9. Thanks for great discussion Lennart.
    I am now packing my bags to go to the states:-). Swedes are some of the best marketing, but somehow it is not allowed to say so in Sweden (but the rest of the world now that well). Free ore not, I think we stand in front of a time when marketing and management need to take the game off business in a hole new dimension. Barack Obama is a good teacher in that field in the states, change is what they need and what we should strive for.

  10. Pingback: DetectiveMarketing.com: Gulltaggen.com: An revolution of changes is coming

  11. Pingback: DetectiveMarketing.com: Chris Anderson: the Free book

Kommentarer är stängda.