rule number one: if they can't afford it, get them to pirate it

rule number one: if they can't afford it, get them to pirate it

Posted Sep 23, 2008 16:34 UTC (Tue) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625)
Parent article: Stanford professor on competing with free software

"One segment is used to 'seed' the network so the product can achieve critical mass, which makes it more attractive to buyers in other segments who then end up choosing the more popular product over the free product."

Often the seed segment is the "pirates" -- it's like an academic, emerging market, and microenterprise discount program but without the transaction or fulfilment costs.

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