‘Underground’ bands have long been knocked for taking large record deals and becoming mainstream hits. Some would argue that by ‘selling out’ they betray their original fans to obtain a broader audience.
This phenomenon is also relevant issue for Internet companies. When the Facebook recently opened its doors to people who don’t have a college email addresses, many existing customers felt betrayed; the private online country club just let in outsiders. However, selling out can occur through much more subtle changes. When Craigslist started charging some posters a fee or when bloggers started including advertisements on their pages public outcry occurred.
In an otherwise rather trite article (click here for article) published by the Guardian, an analyst at Forrester Research is quoted as saying, “[including advertisements] could be the downfall of such sites: at the moment, people are happy to use Web 2.0 sites because they are seen as reliable and independent. 'Email marketing, the last great hope, was quickly discredited by spamming,' he says. 'It would be good news for newspapers if blogs were also knocked as untrue.'” This raises an interesting question about the fate of the Internet. In capitalism profits generally drive business activity. If pursuing profitability is expected to alienate users and herald the impeding death of an Internet destination then the new business/media channel is destined to fail.
In my view the web isn’t destined to implode simply by the pursuit of a robust bottom-line. However, what may be gleaned from this insight is that consumer expectations need to be managed. If a site is poised as being uninfluenced by greed, then its users may be put-off by the incorporation of a revenue model. However, many sites make known their intentions for profitability and are accepted by consumers. It sounds like the key learning is that consumers are not easily fooled and the best course of action is always to be honest.
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