Free is More Complicated Than You Think

Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media, Inc.)
9:45am Tuesday, 02/12/2008
Broadway Ballroom

After putting Dilbert online for free, Scott Adams reported, “Free is more complicated than you think.”

In this talk, Tim O’Reilly does the math: just how many page views do you need to support an e-book with advertising? How popular does your blog need to be? What percentage of customers who sample a free product end up paying for more? Which online business models produce revenue comparable to existing print models? How much will others need to grow to fill the gap?

Free is a strategy, not an endpoint. It’s time to stop wishful thinking and build business models that work.

Photo of Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly

O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O’Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, the Web 2.0 Summit, and the Gov 2.0 Summit. Tim’s blog, the O’Reilly Radar “watches the alpha geeks” to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is on the boards of CollabNet and Safari Books Online, and is a partner in O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

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