免费增值

免费增值（英语：Freemium），是一种应用于专有软件（通常是像软件、多媒体、游戏或Web服务等数字产品）的一种商业模式，它提供长时间的免费使用，但其中的一些先进的特性、功能或虚拟物品则需要付费。^[1]^[2]该英文单词“freemium”是一个混合型新词，来源于“free”（免费）和“premium”（额外费用）。通常情况下这种产品本身免费供人下载，一般情况下也不会被标示为“免费软件”，因为想要体验完整的产品仍然是需要付费购买的（俗称内购），不过仅提供付钱去除广告的则不在此限。^{[来源请求]}

起源

在20世纪80年代时期兴起了一种制作共享软件的商业模式，不同于通过磁盘或者CD-ROM安装的软件，该软件常常限定使用时间或者功能受限，除非你付费获得一个序列号。此种软件的商业模式特别适用于一些成本较低的软件，而且较少造成使用者的流失——除非被竞争者蚕食了市场。

然而，这个专有词语出现在该模式的很久之后，在2006年由风险资本家弗雷德·威尔逊（英语：Fred Wilson (financier)）总结了这种商业模式：^[3]

Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc., then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base.
（为你提供的服务是免费的，可以有广告也可以没有，借由口口相传、推广网络、搜索引擎营销等非常有效地得到大量客户，然后提供给客户以高价增值服务或该软件的增强版本。）

Alacra（英语：Alacra）的Jarid Lukin把这种模式称作“freemium”。^[3]

在2009年，克里斯·安德森出版了一本叫做《免费：未来的极端价格（英语：Free: the future of a radical price）》的书，它解释了这种商业模式的普及。同样，它现在也经常被Web 2.0和开源公司所使用。^[4]

参考文献

^ JLM de la Iglesia, JEL Gayo, "《Doing business by selling free services（靠卖免费服务做生意）》". Web 2.0: The Business Model, 2008. Springer
^ Tom Hayes, "《Jump Point: How Network Culture is Revolutionizing Business（网络文化是如何展开革命化的）》". 2008. Page 195.
^ ^3.0 ^3.1 My Favorite Business Model（我最喜欢的商业模式）. Musings of a VC in NYC. AVC. 2006-03-23 [2012-08-13]. （原始内容存档于2014-02-04）. Free + Premium = Freemium?
^ Heires, Katherine. Why It Pays to Give Away the Store. CNN Money. Business 2.0 Magazine. 2006-10-01 [2012-08-13]. （原始内容存档于2015-06-19）. But free didn't become a serious option until the Internet gave us low-cost online distribution. Adobe (Charts) did it with its PDF Reader in 1994, Macromedia with its Shockwave Player in 1995. Both became the industry standard, and those companies were able to make money by selling the products' authoring software. Running starts: Companies like Six Apart and MySQL are following the example of MySpace and Skype by offering a free basic product and charging for premium service. More from Business 2.0 Live chat: your new online salesperson The hijack-proof truck Server farm goes solar Fastest Growing Tech Companies Current Issue Subscribe to Fortune In these days of Web 2.0 services that rely on quick customer adoption, the strategy has become so common that VCs have coined a term for it: freemium.

延伸阅读

Bruce Sterling. Blogging for Dollars. wired.com. 2006年6月 [2011年12月7日]. （原始内容存档于2013年11月10日）.
克里斯·安德森。免费：未来的极端价格（英语：Free: the future of a radical price）. 1st ed. Hyperion; 2009年6月24日. ISBN 978-1-4013-2290-8.

参见

[1] JLM de la Iglesia, JEL Gayo, "《Doing business by selling free services（靠卖免费服务做生意）》". Web 2.0: The Business Model, 2008. Springer

[2] Tom Hayes, "《Jump Point: How Network Culture is Revolutionizing Business（网络文化是如何展开革命化的）》". 2008. Page 195.

[avc_fav_bus_model-3] 3.0 ^3.1 My Favorite Business Model（我最喜欢的商业模式）. Musings of a VC in NYC. AVC. 2006-03-23 [2012-08-13]. （原始内容存档于2014-02-04）. Free + Premium = Freemium?

[cnn_business_model-4] Heires, Katherine. Why It Pays to Give Away the Store. CNN Money. Business 2.0 Magazine. 2006-10-01 [2012-08-13]. （原始内容存档于2015-06-19）. But free didn't become a serious option until the Internet gave us low-cost online distribution. Adobe (Charts) did it with its PDF Reader in 1994, Macromedia with its Shockwave Player in 1995. Both became the industry standard, and those companies were able to make money by selling the products' authoring software. Running starts: Companies like Six Apart and MySQL are following the example of MySpace and Skype by offering a free basic product and charging for premium service. More from Business 2.0 Live chat: your new online salesperson The hijack-proof truck Server farm goes solar Fastest Growing Tech Companies Current Issue Subscribe to Fortune In these days of Web 2.0 services that rely on quick customer adoption, the strategy has become so common that VCs have coined a term for it: freemium.

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