The logic that the user is responsible for the income of the business is abandoned. Instead, the main source of revenue comes from a third party, which cross-finances whatever free or low-priced offering attracts the users. A very common case of this model is financing through advertisement, where attracted customers are of value to the advertisers who fund the offering. This concept facilitates the idea of 'separation between revenue and customer'.
How they do it: A lot of apps in the AppStore are available for free to the user, however while using the app the user is exposed to various advertisements.
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How they do it: In 2014, Pinterest generated its first revenue, when it began charging advertisers to promote their products to the site’s millions of users, consisting of hobbyists, vacation planners, and do-it-yourselfers. It generates revenue by displaying advertisements in the form of “Promoted Pins.” Promoted Pins are based on an individual user’s interests, things done on Pinterest, or a result of visiting an advertiser’s site or app (via re-targeting).
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How they do it: Twitter does not charge its users for accessing its platform or using its mobile apps. Rather, advertisements are shown periodically, and brands may pay Twitter a fee to promote their tweets sl that they appear more prominently throughout users’ newsfeeds.
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How they do it: Brainpool’s video-on-demand platform MySpass is available for free but financed with video advertising (comparable to traditional TV advertising).
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How they do it: SlideShare was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012. It then started to offer advertisers the opportunity to run Content Ads, which enabled them to reach a targeted audience of professionals on LinkedIn.
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