Is Freemium just another name for the “LADIES’ NIGHT” strategy

I was just reading Chris Dixon’s recent post on the “Ladies Night” strategy and it occured to me that this was the first proof of the Freemium strategy I have read that didn’t include the word Freemium. It also provided a rare insight into when you should or shouldn’t be considering  Freemium as a marketing strategy.

Chris pointed out that firstly “Businesses that target two-sided markets are extremely hard to build but also extremely hard to compete against once they reach scale” . Secondly “In almost every two-sided market, one side is harder to acquire than the other” and (Thirdly) “the most common way to attract the hard side is the ladies’ night strategy: reduce prices for the hard side, even to zero“.

The message in all this is if you are going to use “Freemium” as a strategy to rapidly build market share  first make sure you are operating in a two sided market and then make sure only the hard side gets the product and services for Free.

Further Reading:

• So just how do you make money out of serving up a free lunch?
• This is how you make money out of a free lunch!
• How to arrange to have somebody else provide your customers with a free lunch
• Why Freemium should be Premium!
• Freemium? Isn’t it just another word for advertising?

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Tagged: Advertising, Business Strategy, Freemium, Startups

Posted in: Freemium, Start Ups, Strategic Planning