Would You Accept Spam In Exchange For A Cheap Connection?

from the I-remember-that-business-model dept

Back in the late nineties there were all sorts of business models built on the idea of giving away something for free and forcing people to accept advertising instead. Thus, you could get a free computer, free internet access, and even a free car - if you just accepted advertising. The problem with almost all of these was that the business model didn't make sense, and none of the companies could stay in business. It's no surprise that people say they're willing to accept spam in exchange for a cheaper internet connection, but that doesn't mean there's enough money in it for companies, or that enough people would really pay attention. In fact, many would sign up, and then try to figure out a way to ditch the spam. That was the end result of almost all of these offerings. People would get the free PC, and then reformat the hard drive, or they would install an application that would block the pop up ads. Forcing people to do something they don't want isn't a particularly compelling business model.

1 Comments | Leave a Comment..


If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...
 

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  

    It was done with the Virgin WebPlayer

    identicon
    alternatives, Nov 6th, 2003 @ 4:13pm

    And yes, people would accept 'spam' to get a 0 cost connection.

    Within 2 days, there would be a modified version of Mozilla to 'read' each and every spam message, all the time keeping the connection open and consuming the 'spammers' resources.

    It would end up being shut down, just like the Virgin WebPlayer.

    reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>


A word from our Sponsors...
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
From the Techdirt Archive...
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This