Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about Freemium

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Sunday 13th March 2011

• Love Can Pay The Bills

  by Phil Libin

  Want 1 million people to pay for your product? Get 100 million people to love it. But how do you get there? What's the secret to creating engagement and building value? What makes a successful Freemium business work? Here's a hint: don't be clever. Invest in making a product that brings joy and business success will follow. Best part, you don't need single social feature to do it. We will discuss ways to reach your business goals by focusing on a positive, long-term relationship with your users and fans.

  LEVEL: Intermediate

  • Freemium
  • User Experience

  At 12:30pm to 1:30pm, Sunday 13th March

  In Salon AB, Hilton Austin Downtown

Monday 14th March 2011

• Rebooting the Media Industry: A How to Guide

  by Bram Cohen

  BitTorrent didn’t invent the Internet. It just changed the game. In 2001 the BitTorrent protocol was launched into the world. It turned rich media distribution economics on its head by making efficient use of consumer bandwidth and enabling transfers to get faster the more popular a file is.

  Fast-forward to today and the whole media industry has been turned upside down. From newspapers to music to film, the way content is distributed and how users want to consume it has completely changed. The growth of the Internet created a disruptive model that caused a shift from physical to digital media, and many in the media industry unprepared for the change have been left scrambling.

  Resistance doesn’t stop change from happening, but it can make it more painful. If anything, the dramatic consolidation in the newspaper industry should be a lesson for other media industries that evolution is not a choice, but a best practice for creating a sustainable business model.

  Paid download, subscription, ad-supported or freemium. Which business model will be most effective in generating value? There is not a clear winner, but different online communities as well as types of content will lend themselves to each in varying ways. Continued product development will provide choice to the consumer and they will vote by their actions. The different consumption models and tastes of users will create number of opportunities for monetization by creators as well as more options for consumers.

  LEVEL: Intermediate

  • Freemium
  • Media

  At 11:00am to 12:00pm, Monday 14th March

  In Creekside, Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol