The Teckki Says

The Internet has revolutionized the way we do business, that's cliche. It has also ravaged the way others have done business, primarily the media business. The ones who are surviving want to charge to view content. What might the world look like if they succeed?

Should content be free?

If you are old enough to remember, automated teller machines (ATM's) used to be free. While there wasn't one on every commercial block, you could pull up to any machine and get cash. We got used to the convenience. Then the banks said that's enough. You were going to be charged to use an out-of-network machine. You might now have to do a little more planning, but if you had a Cash Station or Sirrus affiliated card, you weren't too inconvenienced. Then, the banks said that's enough. Now, the ATM had to be from YOUR bank. Still it didn't slow people down, because the charge, around $1 to use an out-of-bank-network fee, was nominal. Then the banks said that's enough. They began to raise prices on out-of-network cards, and then YOUR bank introduced fees for processing out-of-network transactions. Now we're paying currency exchange rates for a quick $20!

Media sites are feeling the pressure to charge. Will this work? I think not.

Unlike ATM machines, which allow us to get OUR OWN money, the Internet let's me get someone else's information. The music industry is a wreck because too many people don't value the content enough to pay for it. The movie industry would have suffered the same fate if not for the telephone and cable companies trying to cash in on increased download traffic by charging more for it.

At some point, content is going to start generating revenue. When that happens, the first thing to go will be search. I don't foresee search being useful when content becomes a profit center, exempted from an unsubscribed view. One of the formulas for search is the popularity of a page, or how many times it is accessed. Start charging, and the page and site popularity goes down. If that site is trying to generate ad revenue, it's limited to the subscribers, which will make it a niche publication. No matter how super-targeted your audience is, or how well-defined it is, advertisers will still pay for quantity, not just the quality. When free search results go down, so will the usefulness of the Internet.

The Internet used to be an information affair, until several refinements enabled secure shopping. While the commercial aspect of the Internet is most often talked about, many forget that surfers RESEARCH products and services BEFORE THEY PURCHASE! Charge surfers for the information they need to make a purchase, and there goes the cost advantage of the Internet. Sellers can't just set up free sites with loads of information. It's the independent, free sites that validate the transactional ones. Often, this information comes from FREE media sites.

I'm not sure what model will emerge that allows informational sites like the print media to begin acquiring revenue from their Internet sites. Maybe we as sellers need to pay for the privilege of selling. It would make online selling more expensive, but I'm not too sure that we will be doing any different than what we are doing today. We pay more for larger audience reaches now.

We might want to keep it that way.