Or at least that’s the future of business according to Chris Anderson.
As this is the same guy that brought us the Long Tail, a theory that explains why online retailers like Amazon, eBay and iTunes have been so successful in harnessing the Internet’s power to meet the demand for a huge number of niche products, it’s certainly worth considering.
The article is Wired’s March cover story and if you get the chance and like the idea of not paying for things, give it a read. Anderson explains that “free is not quite as simple — or as stupid — as it sounds” and uses some great examples to bring the concept to life. The underlining premise is that practically everything Web technology touches starts down the path to gratis. Think about it for a minute. We expect online services to be free and that expectation is met many times over with free email, music, newspapers, books, search and video. In fact, the list goes on and on and if Anderson is to be believed, will only get longer.
He’s going to be publishing a book on the subject next year, guess that’s a free plug then, and it will be interesting to see how much he charges.
