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Hmm do you think they would have gotten so big if they hadn't been free from the start? How would they have got the message out that they are better? Free trials? :/

Things that are "paid only" don't seem to scale quite as well.

Of course if/when a decent micropayment model emerges from ISPs, then it'll likely change everything.




No offense, but are you even reading me before you respond, axod? Do you see why I might ask that?


>> "Google didn't have to be free; they chose to be"

I read that, and thought "That makes absolutely no sense, because they would have failed if they had not been free".

Please explain how Google would have grown to its current size, had it charged users to use its search.

Google chose to be free, because the alternative would have been certain failure.




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