There are plenty of free software out there.
For blogging, there is Wordpress.
For forum, there is MyBB.
For browser, there is Firefox, Opera, etc.
How do they make money if they don't even charge for the usage?
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13-06-2012, 20:11
There are plenty of free software out there.
For blogging, there is Wordpress.
For forum, there is MyBB.
For browser, there is Firefox, Opera, etc.
How do they make money if they don't even charge for the usage?
A lot of these giants make money via ads. Although some don't use ads as an option, because of the fact that their service and company is so big, they get ridiculous offers, money and business offers, that will make sure they get paid. Believe it or not, most of those software companies you've mentioned have there hand in quite a bit online.
The only rational explanation that I can think of is that they make money with the billions of ads they place on their browsers. You know all these ad ons, extensions, toolbars and stuff like that, it keeps on running certain sort of advertisements in the back processes. And then of course when you make use of them, you definitely click on a number of advertisements which you feel inclined to. So this is probably where the money comes from to them. And another thing is, see, as you know google chrome, its owned by google. And there won't be any single human to walk on this planet in todays era who doesn't make use of Google. And the billions of ad ons that he watches and clicks on a number of them, they also make money for Google. So thinking that they are not at all making money as they are offering the service for free would not be quite rational. They have their ways to make money and also huge money without us even knowing that. I and all of us might be wrong about what we think they make the money from, but still, it doesn't mean they don't. They still make huge profits from us using their services and products even for free through out our lives. They won't offer something for free if they knew its not gonna pay off really well. Its simple business right.
They also earn via donations. Just like some of those websites that has buy me buttons. Some of these free software foundations rely on donations and some through ads of their software.
There are 3 ways I can see them making money:
* Attract customers then generate new features you need to pay for
* Get paid on the traffic generated
* Get paid via the advertisements included in the package
All of these can work, you need the right product and the right strategy ...
Majority of their income really will come from advertisements and I tell you that they are earning huge! Facebook also is one example of a site that earns through ads and partnerships with other online sites and services.
How did Instagram make money? Not from charging users for membership but rather they accumulate as many members and then they sold the app to Facebook for $1 billion US dollars. Sometimes the number of members a certain website or app has is enough to make them attractive to others who are willing to buy them out.
I have seen how one free software makes money. Ubuntu is available free. And you can join the forum to get free support. However if you want paid support you can buy it from Canonical. Another software, which is a plugin for myBB, uses the same business model. You can download and use the plugin for free. However if you want to get support you have to subscribe to the developer's website.
A 'Software' is rarely free to use mostly they are sold as a one off license. When you buy a software you use it but a lot of software, especially when it comes to some complex applications and systems then they are sold as yearly licenses.There are maintenance agreements, modifications and up-gradation programs.
Generally software's are developed for one customer and then sold on to other customers if there exist an ample scope for the software in the market.If we talk about companies like Mozilla then they are supported by community members and some of the industrial giants. One more example is like PHP is supported by IBM, Yahoo etc.
They make there money through advertising i.e google adsese or there own private adverts campaign.
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