Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A free world

The 2 way economy (buyer and a seller) has given way to a new 3 way economy. A world where so much is available for free.

The most common of the economies built around free is the three-party system. Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties. Sound complicated? You're probably experiencing it right now. It's the basis of virtually all media.

In the traditional media model, a publisher provides a product free (or nearly free) to consumers, and advertisers pay to ride along. Radio is "free to air," and so is much of television. Likewise, newspaper and magazine publishers don't charge readers anything close to the actual cost of creating, printing, and distributing their products. They're not selling papers and magazines to readers, they're selling readers to advertisers. It's a three-way market.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all

Posted by Monica

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