More Web Sites Yearn To Charge Fees
from the difference-between-content-and-services dept
Yet another study has come out suggesting that more people than ever before are willing to pay for content online. Of course, when you look at the details, the studies are missing the important point: it's not "content" that people are paying for - but a service. The biggest draw is online dating, which is hard to classify as "content". Next are things like NetFlix, which isn't really online content, but an online service delivering offline content. Unfortunately, online content companies are going to misinterpret these findings and think they can get away with charging for things that no one will pay for. The article does quote someone else who believes that most content providers will find that they can make much more money from advertising than from subscriptions. In a world where customers are faced with how many different subscriptions they have online, signing up for yet-another-content-provider's subscription plan isn't going to excite many people. The companies that go this route will also find their own advertising revenues drying up, since they'll be able to return a lot fewer visitors to their advertisers.
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