Fred Wilson, the New York venture capitalist, codified this model and popularized a term for it: freemium. And he continues to receive an enthusiastic reception to the idea on his blog, A VC.
But the question remains. Just how does it work? Phil Libin, the chief executive of Evernote, a start-up in Mountain View, Calif., was kind enough to give me a tour of his privately held company’s financials to reveal the mystery.
The company gives away a Web application that saves data you accumulate. You can use it to keep a wide range of information: meeting notes and voice memos, for example, or even photographs of wines consumed or recipes found in magazines. The information is stored on the company’s computers so all the data can be synchronized on every computer the customer uses — and on smartphones as well.
O artigo do NYT explica como esse monte de empresas de serviços de internet pretende ganhar dinheiro com o modelo Freemium. No caso do Evernote, o sucesso é bem provável, porque se trata de uma das melhores maneiras, se não for a melhor, de manter anotações online.