Comments on: Can the 'freemium' model weather the financial storm?

I don't want to jump on the bandwagon but the latest market upset takes place at a very inconvenient time for a lot of start-ups, which aren't exactly swimming in cash.

[Alan McCann]

"Even if Bush convinces congressional renegades in his party who opposed the Wall Street bailout, this economy's getting worse by the week."

Nice try at revisionist history - the Democrats in the house have the majority and could have passed it all by themselves - if Obama and Pelosi convinced congressional renegades in their party who opposed the Wall Street bailout.... but truth is always subservient to politics, isn't it.

[the_ricochet]

Er, 66% of republicans in the house voted AGAINST.

[raulmot]

A majority of the democrats supported the bill while a majority of the republicans rejected the bill. In any case, it doesn't matter. The bill was crap and did nothing to address the underlying issues. I'm glad it was rejected. They should be able to come up with much better than that. I tend to align more with democratic ideology (big thanks to Bush on that one, I used to be more independent minded), but I think the house republicans were on the right track with their proposal. It would have resulted in a much better bill.

[Penguinisto]

Agreed w/ Alan McCann...

The Democrats hold the majority - they hold the blame for any failures to pass a bill (just as the Republicans did when they held a majority).

And WTH is up with the Speaker of the House using a time of alleged crisis to score cheap ideological/political points in her opening speech - one that should have focused on bringing both sides together? Sure 'getting one's feelings hurt' is a lousy excuse to vote "no"; but looked at deeper, it's a pretty crappy leader who starts off a vote by immediately alienating half the people she needs to get the job done.

/P

[Super2online]

And lets not forget Nancy Pelosi's opening remarks. She did her best to slam all republicans as hard as she possibly could right before the vote. Imagine trying to vote for a bill when the House Speaker is doing her best to make you look terrible for voting for it!

This was supposed to be a non-partisan effort, yet she just couldn't resist putting in her 98 cents worth.

[PeterFroberg]

On the topic of freemium and the financial storm I don't agree with the point.
It is implied in your article and the way you use the quotation, that one must wait to offer the premium product. Why ?
Is it not just as possible to have a freemium model where you can buy the premium product right of the bat ?

If the alternative to freemium is offering the premium product without a free product, then I can not see how the financial storm makes a difference.
In both cases you have a premium product that might be hard to sell because of the financial climate.

Experience has shown that, for a lot of companies, offering the free product benefits the bottom line. I fail to see where this free product could hurt the sale of the premium, even in hard times

[gmarch66]

has this "freemium" approach led to any stand alone profitable business's?