The Thin Line of Fremium Strategies

It’s not like I’m going to say “poor Tripit.” Tripit was purchased last year for $120 Million in cash and stock. So I presume it generated a collection of happy founders. But the pressure on so-called fremium sites, like Tripit, must be tough. I’m getting emails now offering enticements to upgrade.

I like Tripit. I’m a happy user. I forward those confirmation emails I get from United and Hertz and Hilton to a Tripit email and they keep track of them for me, confirmation numbers, times, the whole collection of trip information. But — and here’s the problem — I don’t like it enough to pay for it. I’d rather keep track of conformation emails than pay for the “Tripit Pro” upgrade.

And yet I do pay monthly fees for some web apps. I’d give a quick example but the one that comes to mind competes with one I’m involved with, so I’m mentioning neither. But I do, I promise.

And there are also some I’d pay for if I had to. Evernote and Dropbox, for example. Both are free for me but (don’t tell them) if I had to pay they are so useful that I would.  Within reason, that is.

And there are some I won’t pay for and will stop using before I pay. Like Tripit, which has my sympathy today because of the emails they’re sending me trying to get me to upgrade.

Specifically, my condolences go out to the people who have to decide how to sort features between free and premium versions. That’s got to be a really tough think line to walk. Tightropes come to mind. I’ve had some brushes with problems like these, which in my case were about light versions and free trials, and I didn’t do well with any of them. Tripit people, good luck with that.

 

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