Pricing Online Content: Fee or Free

Do good things always come with a price tag? The advent of the internet in 1991 was accompanied with the arrival of useful and meaningful content in abundance. That is still the case today, with new websites coming up every day--blogs, webpages for cooking fanatics, forums for techies, and whatnot. Businesses are well aware of the fact that advertising on social networking sites, podcasts, live broadcasts, etc. is imperative for growth and development. To lure in potential customers, content with gold’s worth is given away for free. The question that now arises is, should it really be distributed for free or a price should be levied on the same? With millions of search results popping up when you turn to a search engine for your requirements, it’s unlikely that you’ll pay to access something which is available for free on some other site. It’s well noted that top-notch companies who often tried to wall off their services behind subscription charges have faced the wrath of the public. Take the case of graduate students; it’s not often that a student pays dollars to access a research paper. The same guy will prefer spending hours searching for free alternatives rather than paying for it, albeit knowing that the purchase will save him both time and effort. When publishers offer unrestricted access to valuable content, they intentionally play with a double-edged sword—losing on access/subscription fees they could have charged from readers while gaining something of immeasurable worth, consumer behavior insights. When readers share what they read with others via Twitter, Facebook, and similar platforms, not only does it garner new customers for publishers and businesses, it also helps analysts to decipher and formulate strategies to roll out more enticing content for luring the intended target audience. At the same time, they can deliver more value to advertisers and reap in higher remuneration.

The ‘pay v/s free’ dilemma is akin to flipping an unbiased coin; the pro-pay crusaders vocalize that sublime and first-rate journalism will perish unless paid for. The other faction believes that professional journalists and content writers should compete with other contenders all over the world for website hits. Today’s generation has a blurred vision when it comes to what should or should not be paid for in the online arena. Ask a youngster to purchase an album from say, iTunes and you’re sure to get a blatant “no” for an answer. The accompanying reasoning usually starts with, “Man, I can download the same for free from xyz”. For them, words like copyright infringement and legitimacy are non-existent. But blaming them isn’t right. Growing up in a world with resources such as Google, an entry point to the world of free information, the technology was and is available for people to use, and hence they never hesitated in utilizing it.

However, if the need of the hour requires purchase off the internet, consumers don’t think twice. A case in point is LinkedIn, with the advantage of having a paid subscription outweighing the default, free account. Companies go for the former to leverage their interests and don’t mind paying a few dollars for the same; it is their requirement at that instance which matters. Would you not purchase the book directly from Amazon if hours of futile search results such as ‘xyz free pdf download’ or ‘get xyz direct download’ don’t yield anything? With changing times, businesses have become stringent in the process of rolling out products. Authors and publishing houses are going to lengths previously untouched to ensure that books aren’t pirated online. They don’t hang back in taking legal measures, if needed. The music industry comprehended this and deployed steps to fight piracy -- strong IP rights, pruning the web for pirated content, redefining business models, and launching anti-piracy campaigns.

Taking a single stance on the debate of “free or fee” is neither possible nor plausible. A lot of factors are to be considered while settling with one out of the two. What, when, how, and why are just a few among the numerous facets to be deliberated on. Would you have paid to read this very piece of writing or simply open another search result addressing the same topic for free? The choice depends on you.