Online Users Pay For Some Content, But Not Much

from the tell-us-something-we-don't-know dept

In what may be a good followup to the poorly thought out predictions from Factiva's CEO, a new study has come out stating what is probably obvious to everyone: some people spend money for content online. Well, duh. In certain situations, when the content is specialized, has specific value (such as timely financial news), or offers additional services on top of the content (such as running fantasy sports leagues), people are willing to pay. The more interesting finding (which is also a bit obvious, if you think about it), is that this is likely to be a "winner takes all" type of market. Most financial news subscriptions go to the Wall Street Journal. Most entertainmnet video subscriptions go to Real Networks. It will be very difficult for anyone else to really make a dent in these markets. The established players have enough clout to get enough subscribers to have a pay-for system make sense. Other, smaller players, won't. They will need to find other business models.

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