anderson

Malcolm Gladwell has an interesting review in the New Yorker of Chris Anderson's new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price. Anderson is arguing that an economy of bits (ideas) vs atoms (products) points to a strategy of making money on the periphery of a free service — the best example being Google, of course, which makes truckloads of money on advertising while giving away all its other services and products. Gladwell pokes some interesting holes, in particular when discussing Google property YouTube:

"YouTube is a great example of Free, except that Free technology ends up
not being Free because of the way consumers respond to Free, fatally
compromising YouTube’s ability to make money around Free, and forcing
it to retreat from the “abundance thinking” that lies at the heart of
Free. Credit Suisse estimates that YouTube will lose close to half a
billion dollars this year. If it were a bank, it would be eligible for TARP funds."